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Glass. 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




Frontispiece— Ellis' Prance. 



The Battle of Jemappes, I^ovember 6, 1792. 



YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY 

of 

FRANCE 



M 



BY 

EDWARD S. ELLIS, A. M. 



With One Hundred and Fifteen Illustrations 



^M 






y J. -J J » 



PHILADELPHIA 
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

OCT. 3 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS <^ XXc No. 

COPY a. 



IN UNIFORM STYLE 


BY EDWARD S. EI.I.IS, A.M. 


Young Peoples' History of 


United States 




•with 164 illustrations 


Young Peoples' History' of 


England 




with 164 ilhistrations 


Young Peoples' History of 


Germany 




•with iij illustrations 


Young Peoples' History of 


France 




with IIS illustrations 


Young Peoples' History of 


Greece 




with 70 illustrations 


Young Peoples' History of 


Rome 




with 80 illustrations 


^rii-i, js ce?iis each 



Copyrij^ht igoi, b v Henry A Itenius 



• c • c • • • < 

• e c • • • • ( 



••« •-• 



fr«s »„e 






INTRODUCTION. 



ONE thing is to be said concerning the history of 
France : it is instructive, for it includes every 
system of government that the ingenuity of man 
can devise and some that none but a Frenchman could 
evolve. From the bottom to the top and then down 
again, the whole gamut has been run. France has been 
ruled by savages, who made no pretensions of being any- 
thing else, and by men who claimed to be civilized and yet 
were ten times worse than the unadulterated savage. She 
has had monsters of villainy seated on her throne and 
holding the scales of life and death ; she has had good 
men and wise statesmen for her rulers ; she has been an 
aristocracy, a monarchy, an absolute despotism, a Com- 
mune, which is another name for an orgie of murderers, 
who feared* not God, man nor the devil, and of late years 
and at present she seems to be a Republic . 

France is a wonderful nation ; she knows how to wor- 
ship a man as a demi-god to-day and to lop off his head 
to-morrow. She produced the greatest military genius 
the world ever saw; her scholars, wits, scientists, dis- 
coverers, explorers, philosophers, poets, dramatists, his- 



IV 



Introduction. 



torians, novelists, essayists, sculptors and painters have 
never been surpassed anywhere. 

No country has given birth to more wicked or to 
better men ; no nation has been so pitilessly humiliated 
or exalted to more dizzying heights of glory. Her 
dreamers have turned dreams into materialities ; her 
realities have dissolved into baseless visions ; she has 
gone down in blood and flame to the lowest depths of 
despair and then leaped to a height that made all the 
world wonder ; she is great to-day and in her history are 
to be found lessons of absorbing interest, of amazing 
length and breadth and of profound and far-reaching im- 
portance to mankind. 




CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Eaely Histoey of Gaul oe Feance. 

PAGE 

No One Knows Who First Settled Any Country — France as It Was 600 
Years B. C. — The Coming of the Gauls — Their Character — Their In- 
vasion of Neighboring Countries — Conquest of Rome — The Druids — 
Invasion and Settlement of Gaul by the German Tribes From the 
North — Conquest of Gaul by Julius Csesar — Spread of Roman Civili- 
zation — Intolerable Oppression of Roman Rulers — Introduction of 
Christianity — Its Beneficent Work — Constantine the Great — Vast 
Good Accomplished by Christianity 13 

CHAPTER II. 

The Meeovingians. 

418-752. 

The Huns — Attila, the " Scourge of God " — His Crushing Defeat at Chal- 
ons — The Merovingians — Pharamond — Clodin — Merovseus — Childeric 
Clovis Becomes Master of Gaul — Incident of the Vase — Clovis is Con- 
verted to Christianity — His Services to the Church — Partition of 
France Among His Four Sons — The Violence and Wretchedness that 
Followed — Fredegonde and Brunehaut — Their Crimes - — Dreadful 
Death of Brunehaut — Dagobert I. — The OfiSce of Mayor of the Palace 
^The Sluggard Kings — Good Work of the Church — Mahomet — Inva- 



vi Contents. 

PAGE 

sion of France by the Saracens — Great Victory of Charles Martel at 
Tours — Pepin Crowned King of France — End of the Merovingian 
Eule 27 



CHAPTER III. 
Caelovingians. 

752-987. 

Death of Pepin and Division of His Kingdom Between His Sons, Charles 
and Carloman — Death of Carloman — Charlemagne — His Character and 
Genius — His Gigantic Task — Conquest of the Lombards and Saxons — • 
Invasion of Spain — Treachery of the Moors and Death of Eoland — 
Fearful Punishment of the Revolting Saxons — Charlemagne Crowned 
by the Pope as Emperor of the West — His Great Ambition — The Vast 
Good He Accomplished — His Death and Burial — The Incompetent 
Successors of Charlemagne — Origin of the Feudal System — Its Feat- 
ures — Treaty of Verdun — Invasion of France by the Northmen — 
Siege of Paris — Rollo the Northman — His Allegiance to Charles the 
Simple— Kissing the King's Foot by Proxy — Normandy and the Nor- 
mans 42 



CHAPTER IV. 

Capetians. 

987-1328. 

Hugh Capet— Robert II.— Heney I.— Philip I. (987-1108.) 

End of the Carlovingian Line — Hugh Capet Made King — Extent of France 
— Capet Little More than King in Name— General Belief that the End 
of the World would Come A. D. 1000 — Great Famine and Suffering in 
France— The Truce of God — Robert II. Excommunicated and the 
Kingdom Placed Under an Interdict — Queen Constance — Evil Days 
for France — Results of Superstition— Pope Sylvester II.— Henry I.— 
His Prudent Marriage— Henry's Eventless Reign — Robert, Duke of 



Contents. 



Vll 



' PAGE 

Burgundy— Conquest of Eogland by William the Conqueror— William 
Crowned King of England— Conquest of Sicily by Eoger and Robert 
Guiscard 5g 



CHAPTER Y. 

Capetians (continued). 

987-1328. 

The Ceusades. (1096-1270.) 

Cause of the Crusades— Peter the Hermit— History of the First Crusade- 
Its Failure and Overthrow — Second Crusade — An Imposing Array — 
Godfrey of Bouillon— Capture of Antioch and Jerusalem— Godfrey 
Made "Defender of the Holy Sepulchre "—The Kingdom of Jerusalem 
—Other Crusades — Saladin the Saracen— Capture of Jerusalem by 
the Moslems— Richard the Lion Hearted in Palestine— Varied and 
Far Reaching Good Accomplished by the Crusades 66 

CHAPTER VI. 

Capetians (concluded). 

987-1328. 

Louis VI.— Louis VIL— Philip II.— Louis VIII.— Louis IX.— 
Philip IIL— Philip IV.— Louis X.— John I —Philip V. 
— Chaeles IV. (1270-1328.) 

The Age of Chivalry— How a Knight was Made— Death of William the 
Conqueror— Louis VI.— Louis VII.— Philip II.— His Ability— His 
Baseness Toward Richard the Lion Hearted— The Albigenses and 
the Crusade Against Them— Philip's Victory at Bouvines— Louis 
VIII. and his Death at the Siege of Avignon— Louis IX. —His Admir- 
able Character— His Capture in Egypt— Released Through Ransom— 
Hia Death— Philip IIL -The Story of Delabrosse— Charles of Anjou 



viii Contents. 



PAGE 



—The Massacre of the Sicilian Vespers— Philip lY.— The "Third 
Estate "—Louis X.— John I.— Philip V.— The Salic Law— Charles 
IV. — Extinction of the Capetian Line 80 

CHAPTEE VII. 
House of Valois. 
1328-1589. 
Philip VI.— John II.— Charles V.— Chaeles VI. (1328-1422.) 

Claim, of Edward III. of England to the Throne of France— Beginning 
of the Hundred Years' War — Battle of Crecy— First Use of Gun- 
powder in Warfare — How the English Won the Day at Crecy — Siege 
and Fall of Calais — Queen Philippa's Intercession for the French 
Captives— The "Black Death "—The Flagellants— Battle of Poitiers 
— Capture of King John and his Son Philip — The Jacquerie — Terms of 
Peace — Distressful Condition of France — Death of King John — 
Charles V. — His Beneficent Rule — The Schism of the West — Revolt 
in Brittany — Death of Du Guesclin — Wrangle of his Uncles over the 
Regency— Declaration of War Against France by Henry V, of Eng- 
laad — Great English Victory at Agincourt — Charles VI. Becomes 
Insane — France Invaded Again by Henry V. — Shameful Terms of 
the Treaty of Troyes 99 

CHAPTER VIII. 

House of Valois (continued). 

1328-1589. 

Chaeles VII.— Louis XI. (1422-1483.) 

Fighting Renewed Over the Crown of France — Charles VII. — His Threat- 
ened Overthrow by the English— The Story of Joan of Arc, Maid of 
Orleans — Repeated Defeats of the English — Louis XL — His Baseness. 
— The Duke of Burgundy — League of the Public Good — End of the 
Middle Ages — Strife Between the Kibg and the Duke of Burgundy — 



Contents. ix 



Murder of the Bishop of Liege — Meeting Between Loui8 XI. and 
Charles the Bold— Cardinal Balue and the Iron Cage — Defeat and 
Death of the Duke of Burgundy — Last Days of Louis XC 117 

CHAPTER IX. 

House of Valois (continued). 

1328-1589. 

Charles VIII. —Louis XII. — Francis I. — Henry II. 

(1483-1559.) 

A Century of Frightful Deeds — Charles VIII. — His Conquests in Italy — 
Girolamo Savonarola and His Good Work— Death of Charles VIII — 
Louis XII — The Holy League — The Infamous Borgia Family — Cheva- 
lier Bayard, the Knight Sans Peur et Sans Beproche — France's Compli- 
cations with Spain, Germany and England — Henry II. — Defeat of the 
Imperial Army at Metz — The Medici Family — Death of King 
Henry II 133 



CHAPTER X. 

House of Valois (concluded). 

1328-1589. 

Francis IL— Charles IX.— Henry III. (1559-1589.) 

Discovery of the New World — Francis II. — The Real Rulers of France — 
Their Opponents — Luther and the Reformation — The Protestants — 
The Inquisition in France — Punishment of Heretics — John Calvin — 
The Two Great Parties — Admiral Coligny — Failure of the Plot Against 
the Guises— Death of the King — Charles IX. — The Regency — Out- 
break of the Political and Religious War — Advantages Gained by the 
Huguenots — Temporary Peace - Charles Becomes King — An Ill- 
omened Marriage — Attempt to Assassinate Admiral Coligny — The 
Massacre of St. Bartholomew — Death of Charles IX. — Henry III. — 
His Worthless Character — Favors B- stowed on the Huguenots — 



Contents. 



PAGE 



Organization of the Holy League — War of the Three Henrys — Assas- 
sination of the Duke of Guise and of King Henry — End of the Valoia 
Line 150 

CHAPTER XL 
House of Bouebon. 
1589-1792. 
Henry IV.— Louis XIIL— Louis XIV. (1589-1715.) 

Origin of the House of Bourbon — Old-Time Schools— University of Paris — 
Study of Astrology— Theatres— Invention of Playing Cards -Fash- 
ions in Dress— Fondness for Perfumery — Dwelling of the Eieh — 
Wolves in Paris — Plagues and Pestilence — Amusements of the 
Wealthy— The College of France— War of Henry IV. With his Op- 
ponents— His Victory at Ivry — The Edict of Nantes — Improvement 
in Internal Affairs — Assassination of the King — Louis XIIL — Mary 
de Medici — Her Unwise Conduct — Assassination of Concini — Cardinal 
Richelieu — The Great Work He Did for France— Death of the Car- 
dinal and the King — Louis XIV. — Great Length of his Reign — The 
Regency — Termination of the Thirty Years' War — The Fronde Civil 
War — Louis the Great— His Defeat by the Triple Alliance — His Un- 
successful War Against Holland — Marriage of the King to Madame 
Maintenon — Revocation of the Edict of Nantes — War Between Eng- 
land and France — Treaty of Ryswick— War of the Spanish Succes- 
sion — Disastrous Defeat of France and the Treaty of Utrecht — The 
Man With the Iron Mask— Death of Louis XIV 167 

CHAPTER XII. 
House of Bouebon (continued). 
1589-1792. 
Louis XV. (1715-1774). 

Duke of Orleans as Regent — Poverty and Distress of the Kingdom — The 
Mississippi Bubble — Louis a True Bourbon — War of the Austrian 
Succession — Terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle— England and 



Contents. xi 

PAGE 

France Rivals in the New World — French and Indian War — ^Defeat of 
France and her Expulsion from America — France Driven Out of India 
by the English — Failure of the Alliance Against Prussia — Suppression 
of the Jesuits — Death of Louis XV 185 

CHAPTER XIII. 

House op Bourbon (continued). 

1589-1792 

Louis XVI. (1774-1792). 

A Picture of Some of the Kings and Queens of the Leading Powers of 
Christendom— Comparison with the American System of Government 
— The Frightful Tyranny in France — Woful Condition of the Common 
People— Mutterings of the Approaching StO'rm — Illustrations of the 
Sufferings of the Peasantry— Louis XVI.— His Character and Charac- 
teristics—Maria Antoinette, the Queen— The American Revolution — 
Benjamin Franklin at the French Court— Help Given by France to 
the Americans in their Struggle for Independence 194 

CHAPTER XIV. 

House of BounBOiSr (continued). 

1589-1792. 

Louis XVL (1774-1792— continued.) 

The Time When the People Spoke Out Loud— Effect of the American 
Revolution Upon Sentiment in France— Other Causes of French Dis- 
content—Restoration of the Parliaments by the King— Turgot Placed 
in Charge of the Finances— His Dismissal Caused by His Reform 
Measures— Necker Made His Successor— His Dismissal— Meeting of 
the Notables— Recall of Necker— The States-General Summoned— 
Refusals of the Nobles and Clergy to Unite with the Third Estate— 
The Third Estate Organized as the National Assembly— The Members 
Meet and Bind Themselves to Provide a Written Constitution for 
France— They Take the Name of the National Constituent Assembly 
—By Order of the King the Three Branches Meet as One Body— Troops 



xii Contents. 



PAGE 



Called to Versailles by the King — Notable Members of the Assembly- 
The King's New Council— Rage of the Popular Party — Destruction of 
the Bastile— Revolt in the Provinces — The ' ' Joyous Entry ' ' — Flight 
of the Nobility — Reckless Issue of Paper Money — Formal Ratification 
of the New Constitution 207 

CHAPTER XY. 

House of Bouebon (concluded). 
1589-1792. 
Louis XVI. (1774-1792— concluded.) 
Growth of Revolutionary Sentiment — Danger of the Royal Family — Their 
Flight from Paris— Their Detection and Return— The Legislative As- 
sembly — Three Classes Composing It — Declaration Regarding the 
Nobles and Clergy — The Coalition Against France — War Declared by 
France Against Austria — Manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick — 
Attack on the Tuileries and Massacre of the Swiss Guard — The King 
Deposed by the Assembly — Louis XVI. in Prison — His Trial, Condem- 
nation and Execution 220 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Republic. 
1792-1804. 
The Convention. (1792-1795.) 
Increase of the Coalition Against France— Energy of the Republic— Defec- 
tion of Demouriez — Establishment of the Committee of Safety — 
General Distrust and Suspicion— Weakness of the Girondists— Insur- 
rection in the Provinces— Fearful Massacres at Lyon, Toulon and 
Nantes— Assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday — The Reign of 
Terror — Camille Desmoulins — Abolishment of the Existing Calendar 
—Abolishment of Religion— The ' ' Goddess of Reason ' ' and the ' 'Age 
of Reason" — Execution of Maria Antoinette — Crushing of the He- 
bertists— Danton Guillotined— End of Robespierre — The Reaction- 
Success of the Armies of the Republic — Close of the Government by 
the Convention — Madame Roland 233 



Contents. xiii 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Eepublic (continued). 
1792-1804. 
The Directory. (1795-1799.) 

PAGE 

Napoleon Bonaparte— The Bonaparte Family — Early Training of Napoleon 
— His Servi es at Toulon — Jealousy of Him— His Brilliant Defense of 
the Tuileries and Defeat of the National Guard — Appointed to the 
Command of the Army in Northern Italy — His Magnificent and Suc- 
cessful Campaign — The Egyptian Expedition — Its Successes — Destruc- 
tion of the French Fleet by Nelson at Ahoukir Bay — Failure'of the 
Siege of Acre — Napoleon's Secret and Unexpected Return to France — 
His Popularity— Overthrow of the Directory. A New Constitution 
Adopted, the Consulate Established and Napoleon Made First Consul, 246 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Republic and the Empire. 

1792-1815. 

The Consulate and the Empire. (1799-1815.) 

Napoleon as First Consul— His Many-sided Greatness — Outbreak of War 
— Crossing of the Alps — Marengo— Hohenlinden — Treaty of Lune- 
ville — Malta Captured by England and the French Driven Oat of 
Egypt — Napoleon Chosen First Consul for Life — Sale of Louisiana to 
the United States — Breaking Out of the Ten Years' War— Napoleon 
Elected Emperor — His Crowning of Himself — Admiral Nelson's 
Great Victory at Trafalgar — Napoleon's Success at Ulm — His Brilliant 
Triumph at Austerlitz — His Distribution of Kingdoms — A New Coali- 
tion Formed Against France — Renewal of the War— Defeat of Prussia 
— Peace of Tilsit— French Invasion of Spain and Portugal — The Pen- 
insular War — Annexation of Rome and Excommunication of Na- 
poleon — The Pope Made a Prisoner — French Defeat of the Austrians 
— Napoleon at the Zenith of his Glory — His Astounding Achieve- 
ments — Josephine Divorced — Napoleon's Marriage to Maria Louisa — 
His Invasion of Russia— The Awful Retreat from Moscow — The New 



xiv Contents. 

PAGE 

Coalitiou Against the French Emperor — "Battle of the Nations'' — 
Defeat of Napoleon and Fall of Paris — Abdication of Napoleon — 
Sent as an Exile to Elba — His Escape — His Return to Paris — Louis 
XVIII. — Alliance Against Napoleon — Waterloo — The End of the 
First Empire • 259 



CHAPTER XIX. 

House of Bouebon (restored). 

1815-1830. 

Louis XVIII.— Charles X. 

Louis XVIII, a True Bourbon— Revengeful Persecution by the Royalists 
— Marshal Ney — Vast Sum Paid by France to the Allies — Assassina- 
tion of the Duke of Berry — Oppressive Course of the King— The Holy 
Alliance — Death of Louis XVIII. from Gluttony — Charles X. An- 
other True Bourbon — His Tyranny — Action of England, France and 
Russia in Behalf of Greece— Exasperating Conduct of the King — 
Conquest of Algiers — Growth of Liberal Sentiment— Charles' At- 
tempted Coup d'Etat - The Revolution of July, 1830 — Exile and 
Death of Charles X 278 



CHAPTER XX. 

House of Obleans. 

1830-1852. 

Louis Philippe — Republic. 

Louis Philippe — The Four Political Parties of France and their Principles 
— Vicious Wrangles — First Visitation of the Cholera— Its Appearance 
in America — Severe Defensive Laws Passed by the Government of 
France — Louis Napoleon — Failure of his First and Second Attempts 
Against the Throne of France — His Escape from the Citadel of Ham — 
The French Revolution of 1848 — Flight of Louis Philippe — Organiza- 
tion of the Republic — Louis Napoleon Elected First President — His 
Coup d'Etat — The Empire Restored and Louis Napoleon Made 
Emperor 287 



Contents. xv 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Second Empire. 

1852-1870. 

Napoleon III. 

PAGE 

Splendor and Prosperity of the Second Empire— The Only Foundation of 
Pure Greatness— Eottenness of the Second Empire— Alliance Between 
France and England in the War in the Crimea -Louis Napoleon's War 
Against Austria in Behalf of Italy— His Payment Therefor — Attempt 
and Failure of Louis Napoleon to Establish a Latin Empire in Mexico 
— Construction of the Suez Canal— The Franco-Prussian War— Col- 
lapse of the Second Empire— Siege and Fall of Paris— Treaty of 
Peace and its Terms— Horrors of the Commune in Paris — Its Extinc- 
tion — Escape of the Empress — Death of Louis Napoleon and of his 
Son Prince Napoleon 299 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Third Republic. 

1870. 

Committee of Public Defense— Thiers — MacMahon— Grevy 
— Carnot — Perier— Faure — Loubet. (1870-1891.) 

Dispute Over the Form of Government — The Various Candidates — Thiers 
Elected Temporary President — The Last of the Army of Occupation — 
Reorganization of the Army — Sentence of Marshal Bazaine — The 
Republic Agreed Upon — Adoption of a Constitution— Tunis Made a 
French Protectorate -France Excluded from the Dual Control in 
Egypt— Partial Sovereignty Obtained in Madagascar — Annam and 
Tonquin Made a French Protectorate — Troubles with China— French 
Scandals— Carnot Elected President— The Universal Exhibition of 
1889 —Assassination of President Carnot — Presidents Perier, Faure 
and Loubet— The Panama Scandals— The Dreyfus Affair— The Gov- 
ernment of France — Scientists — Inventors — Historians — Poets — Nov- 
elists—The Countries, Population, Area, etc 314 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

The Battle of Jemappes Frontispiece 

•' He was a giant in stature " 16 

" The priests offered up human sacrifices " 17 

The Glerman Invasion of Gaul « 18 

Odin's Hunt ^ 21 

A Chieftain of Gaul Submitting to Caesar 23 

A Christian Martyr Under the Arena 24 

Vision of the Emperor Constantine 25 

The Huns Invading the Territory of the Gauls 29 

Clovis and the Yase of Soissons 31 

Choosing a King after the Battle of Chalons c 33 

The Baptism of Clovis o...... 34 

" Childebert and Clotaire murdered two " 35 

"Fastened to a T^ild horse and dragged to death ".o 37 

"Thousands of people flocked to his standard" -o 39 

The King and His Major Domi 40 

Pepin Cutting off the Head of a Lion and of a Bull 43 

Charlemagne ' 44 

Roland at the Pass of Eoncesvalles 47 

xvii 



xviii illustration^. 

PAGfi 

The Coronation of Charlemagne 49 

Signature of Charlemagne 51 

Statuette of Charlemagne 52 

A Feudal Castle 53 

Arrival of the Northmen 56 

Coronation of a King 64 

Roger Gruiscard's Fleet Destroying the Enemy 65 

Submission of the Saracens to Roger Guiscard , 67 

Crusaders on their Way to the Holy Land.. « 70 

Peter the Hermit Preaches the First Crusade 71 

Godfrey of Bouillon Entering Jerusalem 75 

A Knight of St. John 76 

Finding the Dead Body of the Emperor Barbarossa 77 

Statue of William the Conqueror, at Falaise 83 

Philip Augustus at the Elm of Gisors 85 

The Battle of Bouvines , ,. 87 

Saint Louis Instructed by his Mother..... = 89 

The Living Barricades at Mansourah 90 

Death of Saint Louis at Tunis 91 

The High Court of Montfaucon 93 

Conradin Throws down His Gauntlet 95 

Pope Boniface VIII. Defiant under Insult 97 

Seal of King John of Bohemia 100 

The French Chivalry Charging the English at Crecy.... 101 

Arbalists, or Cross Bows 102 

Effigy of Edward the Black Prince 103 



Illustrations. xix 

PAGE 

Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster Abbey 104 

The Flagellants 105 

Crossbowmen on Horseback 106 

King John and his Son Philip at Poitiers 107 

The Jacquerie 109 

Coat of Mail, Gauntlets and Mailed Boot Ill 

The Fren«h go down at Agincourt 113 

Charles VI. of France , 114 

Isabelle of Bavaria, Wife of Charles VI 115 

City Life in the Fifteenth Century 119 

Joan of Arc Wounded before Orleans 121 

Joan of Arc Before the Tribunal 123 

Joan of Arc's Words at her Trial , 125 

Flight of Charles the Bold after the Battle of Morat 127 

Siege of Neuss by Charles the Bold 128 

Presentation of the First Printed Book to Louis XI 129 

View of Plessis-les-tour 130 

Cardinal Balue in his Iron Cage 131 

Charles VIII. Enters Home at the Head of bis Army 135 

Charles VIII. Hearing the Causes of the Rich and the Poor 136 

Savanarola Preaches Against the Sin of Luxury 137 

Louis VIIL Wins the Battle of Agnadello 139 

Seal of Louis XII 110 

Lucretia Borgia Dances before her Father 141 

Seal of Francis I 142 

Goat of Mail of Chevalier Bayard 143 



XX Illustrations. 

PAGE 

Medal of Francis 1 144 

Bayard, Single-handed Defends the Bridge 145 

Armor of Gonsalvo de Cordova 146 

Francis I. wins the Battle of Pavia, A. D. 1544 147 

Scene at a Tournament, Sixteenth Century 148 

Tournament, Joust of Lances 149 

A Musquetin, 1559 150 

Armor of a Captain of Lansquenets 151 

Mary Stuart and her Young Husband 153 

The Holy Inquisition — Two Modes of Torture 154 

The Holy Inquisition in Session 155 

Nobles and Calvinist 157 

Catherine de Medici 159 

Huguenots Destroying the Sculptures on a Cathedral IGl 

The Morning after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew 163 

Visit of the Duke of Guise to Henry III 165 

Henry IV. Playing with his Children 172 

Assassination of Marshal Concini 175 

Cinq Mars and De Thou Led to Execution 177 

Richelieu and Father Joseph 179 

Admiral De Buyter = 181 

Prince Eugene 1 83 

Louis XV. at Fontenoy 189 

The Death of Wolfe 191 

Frederick the Great 193 

Louis XV. in His Cabinet 197 



Illustrations. xxi 

PAGE 

Louis XV 199 

The Robber Barons 201 

Louis XV. Shown to the People 204 

Maria Antoinette 205 

Turgot Receiving his Dismissal 209 

Necker 210 

Costumes of the States-General 211 

Lafayette 213 

Camille Desmoulins in the Garden 215 

Louis XVI 217 

The "Joyous Entry" 219 

The Bread Riots 221 

Mirabeau 223 

Louis XVII 224 

The Royal Family at Varennes 225 

Robespierre 227 

Louis XVL and the Mob in the Tuilcries 229 

Danton 230 

Execution of Louis XVI 231 

Dumouriez 235 

Marat 236 

Assassination of Marat 237 

Callingthe Roll of the Last Victims 239 

The Feast of the Goddess of Reason 241 

Maria Antoinette Leaving the Tribunal 243 

Robespierre Made an Attempt at Suicide - 245 



xxii Illustrations . 

PAGE 

Napoleon Bonaparte 247 

Barras 249 

Napoleon at the Bridge of Lodi 251 

Josephine 253 

The British at Aboukir Bay 254 

Napoleon in Egypt 255 

Kleber 256 

Lucien Bonaparte 257 

Napoleon 1 263 

Francis II 265 

Louis Bonaparte 266 

At the Height of his aiory, Friedland, 1807 267 

42d Highlanders Driving the French out of Elvina 269 

Murat 271 

Caroline Bonaparte 272 

Josephine Hears of the Divorce 273 

Joseph Bonaparte 275 

Napoleon's Return from Elba 277 

Flight of Napoleon from Waterloo 279 

Marshal Ney 281 

The Duke of Berry 283 

Louis XVIII. Advising Charles X 285 

Charles X 286 

Louis Philippe 289 

Bue de Rivoli, Paris 291 

Napoleon III ,.,,.,,,,. 293 



Illustrations. 5cxiii 

PAGE 

Rebellion, 18i8 294 

The Pantheon ...., 295 

Street Singers, Paris 29G 

Le Pont-Neuf, Paris 297 

The Louvre from the Rue Marengo 299 

A Cabaret in Montmartre, Paris 300 

Law School, Paris , 301 

Schoolboys Leaving the Lycee 303 

Left Wing of Opera House, Paris 304 

Napoleon III. at the Battle of Solferino 305 

The Medici Fountain, Paris 306 

Hotel de Yille, Paris 307 

Count Bismarck - 309 

Marshal Bazaine 311 

Summary Execution of a Communist 313 

Louis Adolphe Thiers 315 

Count Yon Moltke 317 

Marshal MacMahon 319 

M. Jules Grevy 321 

Yoltaire 322 

Market Place and Garden of the Temple, Paris 323 

Rousseau 324 




Frontispiece to a History of France printed in 1493. 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S 

HISTORY OF FRANCE 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EARLY HISTORY OF GAUL OR FRANCE. 

NO ONE knows who first settled Gaul, as France was 
called in its earliest days. For that matter, no 
one knows who first settled any country. When 
the white men discovered America, they found the In- 
dians here. Then it was learned than the mound builders 
were ahead of the Indians, and now every one is satisfied 
that the mound builders were the Indians themselves, 
and that when Columbus first saw Guanahani {gioa'na 
lia'nee) island, the red men on the continent were en- 
gaged in building their vast mounds to serve as burial 
places for their dead. Who w^ere ahead of the mound 
builders ? 

In Central China you will find to-day a community of 
Jews, whose history runs back into the dim past beyond 
all records. Many think they are the descendants of one 
of the Lost Tribes of Israel, but that is only guesswork. 

13 



14 Young People's History of France. 

For generations, histories have stated that the earliest 
ruler of whom there is any knowledge was Menes, 
founder of the first dynasty in Egypt, who lived some 
5,000 years before the birth of our Saviour; but within a 
short time past, the tombs of a number of kings, all of 
whom flourished before Menes, have been brought to 
light. One of these days, the truth will be known and 
we must wait until that time in order to gain certain 
knowledge. 

Now as to France, the first accounts that can be re- 
lied on take us back to a period about 600 years before 
Christ. It was then a land covered with vast stretches 
of gloomy forests, where the streams froze in winter and 
the people were as wild and as untamed as the beasts 
that prowled in the trackless woods. They lived their 
savage life until a horde of Celts or Gauls swarmed down 
from the direction of Germany and hustled the original 
owners out of the country, just as we did with the In- 
dians and just as England does when she covets some 
rich country. 

Those Gauls were terrible fellows, who loved nothing 
so dearly as fighting and killing other people. They wore 
breeches, a tunic and a striped cloak something like the 
plaid of the Scotch Highlanders of to-day. When one of 
them overcame a foe, he made sure of putting him be- 
yond the power of doing further harm, by cutting off his 
head. They were of massive build, blue-eyed and light 
haired, and so fierce in their ways, that they may be con- 
sidered as so many snarling wild beasts that had learned 
to travel on their hind legs. They dwelt in caves and 



The Early History of Gaul or France. 15 

rude huts, and roved about with their immense herds oi 
cattle, whose skins were traded with Grecian or Phoeni- 
cian merchants for strong drink and trinkets. 

Finding they could not get enough fighting at home, 
the Gauls plunged into other countries and swung their 
clubs, axes and swords and hurled their spears with an 
effect that filled their hearts with delight. They suc- 
cessfully invaded Greece, Spain and Africa and threw 
even imperial Rome into a shiver of fright. They re- 
peatedly crossed the Alps, swooped down on the vine- 
yards of Italy, and finally in the year 390 B. C, cap- 
tured Rome and held possession of it for nearly a year. 
That was the time when the citadel was saved by the 
squawking of a flock of geese, which gave notice one night 
of the stealthy approach of the Gauls. At last the 
Romans paid the Gauls to go away and leave them alone. 

More than twenty years later, the Gauls made 
another visit and carried their conquest to the very 
walls of Rome, whose inhabitants were cooped up for a 
dozen years. Then the savages went off again and made 
permanent settlements in the valleys of the Po. They 
were densely ignorant and superstitious, and the 
very kind of people to be ruled by the ferocious priests 
of the Druids, who fattened upon their ignorance. 
Those Druids were the real rulers who made and en- 
forced their merciless laws. Their places of worship 
were in the sombre depths of groves, where in the soft 
twilight, they indulged in their frightful ceremonies. 
The oak to them was a sacred tree and the mistletoe, 
when found clinging to it, was believed to have miracu- 



16 



Young People's History of France. 



bus healing powers. Often the priests offered up 
human sacrifices, whose sufferings were prolonged to a 
horrifying degree. The victims were slowly killed with 

a knife or placed in wooden 
cages and tortured with 
flames, their outcries and 
moans making sweet music 
in the ears of the priests. 

The Greeks were so 
frightened by the attacks 
of the Gauls that they 
begged the Romans to pro- 
tect them. The Romans 
sent an officer and an army 
who built two towns, Aix 
(ase or akes) and Narbonne, 
and made war on the 
Gauls, who sent a messen- 
ger to the Roman camp. 
He was a giant in stature, 

- He was a giant in stature." ^^^ ^,^g aCCOmpauicd by a 

bard who sang the praises of his clan, the Arverni. There 
were other attendants, but ^ his chief guards were a pack 
of enormous hounds. The messenger, in the name of his 
chief, Bituitus, ordered the Romans to leave the country 
and cease to harm the Gauls. The Roman general turned 
his back contemptuously upon the messenger, who re- 
turned in anger to his chief, and preparations were made 
for battle. The result was indecisive, but Bituitus was 
soon afterward made prisoner, sent to Italy, and kept a 





" The priests offered up human sacrifices." 
2^ElUs* France. 17 



18 



Young People's History of France. 



captive for tlie remainder of his life. His son was educa- 
ted as a Koman and sent back to his people to teach them 
to be friends to Rome. 

The Gauls lost much of their war-like spirit^ as they 
became partly civilized. The German tribes on the 
shores of the Baltic and North seas swept their country 
in a vast flood, wdiicli nothing could stand against. 




The German Inyasion of Gaul. 

Flushed with their success, these new barbarians de- 
termined to drive out the Gauls and then capture 
Rome. Marius the Roman general saw the peril, and, 
marching with a powerful army into Gaul, he met the 
invaders in the year 102 B. C. near iVix and in a terrific 
battle in which more than a hundred thousand men w^ere 
left dead, utterly defeated them. 

This crushing victory saved Rome, but did not keep 



The Early History of Gaul or France. 19 

the Franks, as they were calledj out of Gaul. Those 
who settled near the ocean were called Salian Franks, 
while those who dwelt by the Rhine and the Meuse 
{muze) were Ripuarian Franks. The three tribes that 
thus peopled Gaul, were the Burgundians, who settled in 
the southeastern part, the Visigoths in the southwest and 
the Franks in the northeastern portion. The last named 
were the warriors, the others being more peaceful in 
their ways. 

The religious belief of the Franks, generally known 
as the Scandinavian Mythology, was a savage creed. 
Their chief deities were Odin and Thor, the latter being 
the god of war, who was believed to be capable of slaying 
thousands with one stroke of his gigantic battle axe ; but 
he was mortal, and when he felt the approach of death, 
killed himself with the point of his lance. 

Fifty-eight 3^ears before the birth of our Saviour, 
Julius CaBsar entered Gaul with a Roman army to con- 
quer the German invaders and to take possession of the 
country for Rome. His object was to extend the domin- 
ion of Rome and to gain wealth, fame and political 
power for himself. It required nine years to complete 
his work. He divided the country into three districts ; 
that of the Belgians in the north, that of the Celts or 
Gauls in the centre, and that of the Aquitanians in the 
southwest. The written history of Gaul begins with this 
conquest, for, as you know, C^sar wrote a history of his 
doings in Gaul. He says the people consisted of three 
classes— the nobles, whose sole business was fighting ; the 
priests or Druids, who were the religious teachers, judges, 
physicians and educators, and the slaves. 



20 Young People's History of France. 

The Gauls were split into many tribes, who hated one 
another too intensely to unite against the invaders, and 
naturally, therefore, the disciplined legions of Rome 
triumphed. Roman civilization spread among the con- 
quered people. One of the places captured by Caesar 
was a miserable village of mud huts on a swampy island 
in the Seine (saiie). The Gauls called it a name which 
meant Mud Town, and the tribe who lived there were the 
Parisii [pa-ris'i-i). The Romans built a temple to Jupiter 
on the spot, which later gave way to the Cathedral of- 
Notre-Dame [notr'-clam), while Mud Town in time became 
Paris, the most beautiful city in the world. 

Stately towns and cities arose all over Gaul, modeled 
after those of Rome ; schools, colleges and libraries 
sprang up ; literature and art were cultivated ; a modified 
form of Latin language took the place of that of the 
Gauls, and Roman law supplanted the barbaric rule of 
the country. A grand era of prosperity and progress 
seemed to have come to Gaul, for peace prevailed; in- 
dustry ruled; taxes were light; agriculture improved; 
justice was administered to all; the cultivation of corn, 
the olive and the vine became general ; the climate grew 
milder and softer through the cutting down of the im- 
mense forests; there were extensive manufactures of iron, 
bronze, jewelry, armor, weapons and tools, and the com- 
merce of the old city of Marseille {mar-sale') originally 
founded by the Greeks, united Gaul with all the countries 
along the Mediterranean. 

Perhaps this blessed condition of affairs might have 
lasted and even improved, but for Rome, which had 




Odin Hunting with his Wolves, Geri and Freki. 



21 



22 Young People's History of France. 

brought it about. That once proud " mistress of the 
world " had become rotten to the core and was crumbling 
to pieces through quarrels, jealousies and civil war. 
When a fountain is corrupt it cannot give forth pure 
water, and the heel of the master was now ground upon 
the throat of the servant. The wealthy Romans bought 
up the small farms of Gaul and turned them into cattle 
and sheep pastures, tended by their slaves ; taxes became 
intolerable, for the debauched rulers in Rome clamored 
for more and more money to gratify their vile appetites. 
Every farmer had to give each third bushel of grain to 
the tax gatherer for the government, and then the tax 
gatherer robbed his victim for his own benefit. The rich 
became richer and the poor poorer, and the condition of 
Gaul grew more hopeless than when under the rule of the 
ruthless savages centuries before. 

Meanwhile a new and mysterious power stole into 
Gaul and began its work. At some date in the second 
century Christianity reached that country. There is a 
tradition that the Apostle Paul preached there, but of 
this nothing is known with certainty. Be that as it may, 
this new influence steadily advanced and grew. At first 
the Romans treated it with indifference. They cared 
nothing for religion so long as it did not interfere with 
their purposes. But as it spread they saw that its spirit 
was opposed to their own institutions. A Roman soldier 
who had been converted to Christianity was ordered to 
kneel before a bronze image of the emperor, but refused, 
and was deemed guilty almost of treason. 

The new faith declared that there was a higher power 






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24 



Young People's History of France. 



and authority than that of Caesar, and its missionaries 
were preaching that faith everywhere and winning 
thousands. Rome considered it high time to root out this 



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pestilent religion which threatened to overturn everything, 
and then began a persecution whose ferocity was like that 
of the Chinese ''' Boxers." The evangelists and missionaries 
were tortured to death, often for the amusement of the 
Koman populace. Lions and tigers were half starved that 



The Early History of Gaul or France. 



25 



they might become the fiercer in tearing men, women 
children to 
death in the 
circuses while 
the bloated 
sp ec tators 
shouted wdth 
delight. 
Nothing that J 
human ingen- 
uity could 
devise was 
forgotten i n 
adding to 
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scenes of suf- - 
ering. ^' 

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was the seed 
of the Church, E 
and persecu- 
tion only aid- 
ed the devel- 
opment of 
true Christi- 
anity. A won- 



and 




Vision of the Emperor Constantine, 



26 Young People's History of France. 

derful change took place in the fourth century. Con- 
stantine, the great Roman emperor, while engaged on one 
of his military expeditions, about 312, had a vision like 
that of Saul of Tarsus, for in the sky before him appeared 
an immense cross with the inscription '^m hoc vince,'' 
meaning, ^' with this you will conquer." Constantino be- 
came a convert to Christianity and straightway began 
his work of reform. Having won an easy victory,, he 
adopted the cross as his standard, abolished many of the 
obscene pagan rites, compelled Sunday to be respected 
and all work to stop on that day, caused the Christian 
churches which had been destroyed to be rebuilt, abolished 
the consulting of oracles and the fights of the gladiators, 
and in 325 assembled the first universal council of Nicse. 

The change was far reaching and amazing. The 
idols that reared their hideous forms all over the country 
were pulled down and gave place to crosses and crucifixes, 
and when some of the timid peasants stole in among the 
Druidical oaks, which because of their grandeur and 
majesty, were spared, they saw the image of the Virgin 
looking mildly down upon them from among the leaves 
and branches. Then in time monasteries and convents 
were founded, a.nd the monks and nuns lived by cultivat- 
ing the soil, something which until then had been looked 
upon as fit only for slaves. Gradually, too, the bishops 
and clergy became more influential than the magistrates. 

So, despite the cruelty and tyranny of Rome, she did 
much that was good for Gaul,, where was founded one 
of the greatest nations of modern times. 



CHAPTER IT. 

THE MEROYINGIANS. 418-752. 

IN THE fifth century, the Huns, a frightful people, 
whose homes were on the plams of Tartary, began 
to ravage Europe. They were like so many wild 
beasts, and their terrible leader, Attila, bore the awful 
title of " The Scourge of God." Many looked upon him 
and his vast horde as so many demons loosed for a season 
that they might devastate the world. He compelled the 
Romans who had exacted tribute so many times from 
other nations, to pay tribute to him. Then with an 
army that is said to have numbered a million warriors, 
he crossed the Rhine and burst into Gaul, like a tidal 
wave from the ocean. 

There seemed no hope for any people that might find 
themselves in the path of the wrathful Scourge ; but 
knowing their desperate peril, Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, 
Burgundians and Franks threw aside their own quarrels 
and presented a combined front to Attila and his hosts. 
At Chalons {shal-on'), in the Catalaunian plains, in the 
year 451, was fought one of the decisive battles of the 
world. Attila was defeated and Western Europe was 
saved to the races that have carried it to the fore of civili- 
zation and progress. 

Now, if you will examine the list of sovereigns of 

27 



28 Young People's History of France. 

France, as given at the end of this history, you will note 
that the first name is that of Pharamond. He belonged 
to a powerful Frank family named Meroving, which 
meant " mighty warrior." They were Salian Franks, 
who, as you remember, dwelt along the sea shore. 
Pharamond was one of the princes of the Meroving 
family and became so influential in Gaul that he is gen- 
erally looked upon as the first King of France. 

The history of those early rulers is so jumbled and 
bloody, that I shall pass over it briefly. Pharamond who 
began his rule in 418, Avas succeeded in 428 by his son 
Clodion, who died broken hearted in 447, because of the 
death of his son, and was succeeded by Merovaeus, a 
prince of the Merovingian family. It was he who united 
his forces with the Roman generals and helped to win 
the great victory over Attila. 

Childeric was a boy at the time of the death of 
MoroviBus, his father, and for a time was kept out of his 
rights, but he gained them in 458 and ruled until 481. 
Childeric I. was a fairly decent person, and had a few 
good qualities, but he was about the only one of the 
Merovingians of whom this can be said. Most of them 
were as mean, treacherous and despicable as a man can 
be and still live. 

Clovis, eldest son of Childeric, succeeded him in 481, 
and I must tell you a few things about him. At the 
time of his father's death, Clovis was only fifteen years 
old, but he was chief of a body of renowned fighters. 
Although Rome had fallen, she still had authority in the 
district of Soissons (almost swi-son) in the upper Seine 




The Huns Invading the Territory of the Gauls. 



29 



30 Young People's History of France. 

{sane) valley. Clovis captured this place in 486, turned 
out the Koman governor, and made his residence his own. 

This success made Clovis master of all Gaul north of 
the Loire [Iwar), excepting Brittany, whose chiefs formed 
an alliance with him. Soissons contained a large amount 
of treasure and the soldiers of Clovis gathered much plun- 
der. All they found was brought forth and piled into an 
immense heap. Some of the stuff was taken from neigh- 
boring places, and, among the treasures was a splendid 
vase of chased gold, stolen from the cathedral at Rheims 
{remz). The bishop begged Clovis to return it. While 
dividing the treasure, Clovis asked that the vase be 
allowed to him, his intention being to give it to the 
bishop. 

Hardly, however, had Clovis laid his hand on it, when 
a soldier sprang forward and shattered the vase with his 
battle axe, exclaiming that the king should not receive 
more than his share. Clovis turned and looked angrily 
at the soldier, but did not speak. 

A year later Clovis had become so great that no one 
dared gainsay his will or find fault with anything he did. 
At a grand parade of the king's soldiers, he recognized 
the man who had smashed the vase a year before. He 
beckoned him to draw near. As the soldier obeyed, 
Clovis snatched his spear from his grasp and flung it on 
the ground. The soldier stooped to pick it up, when the 
king brought down his battle axe with the remark: "I 
serve you as you served the vase at Soissons." 

The soldier's head being no harder than the vase, was 
cracked and his power was ended for doing mischief. 




" I serve you as you served the vase at Soissons." 



31 



32 Young People's History of Prance. 

Clovis made his home in Paris, which thus became 
the capital of Francia, the land of the western Franks. 
The Church was so beset by enemies on every hand that 
it was anxious to secure a champion and now turned to 
Clovis. His wife was an orthodox Catholic, and, though 
he listened to her gentle persuasions, he still hesitated to 
become a Christian ; but while engaged in a battle with 
a horde of Germans near Strasburg, wuth the result 
doubtful, he called for divine help, and promised to 
become a Christian if the Lord would give him victory, 
as if such a proposed bargain can have any effect with 
the Ruler of all. However, Clovis did win the fight, 
professed Christianity and 3000 of his followers did the 
same. 

Fired by the zeal of a new convert as well as by 
ambition, he conquered the Burgundians and they became 
good Catholics. Then he served the Visigoths in the 
same manner and left them only a narrow strip of sea- 
coast north of the Pyrenees. At that time, the title of 
Pope was not limited to the bishop of Rome, but was held 
by the bishops generally. The Bishop of Rome, in grati- 
tude for the services rendered by Clovis, conferred upon 
him the title of ^^ Eldest Son of the Church," and '' Most 
Noble Christian King." That he did good service cannot 
be denied, but he committed murders and crimes without 
number mainly to clear the way for his sons to become 
his successors. He died in 511, and, having divided 
France into four districts, left them to his four heirs as 
follows : 

Thierry I. — Austrasia or Metz; Clodomir, Orleans; 










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3 — JSriiis' France, 



34 



Young People's History of France. 



Childebert I., Paris; Clotaire I., Soissons or Nuestria. 
Quarreling, crime and misery followed this arrangement. 
The sons were intensely jealous of one another, and 
stopped at no treachery to gain an advantage. Clodomir 




The Baptism of Clovis. 

had three little boys, and, to secure Orleans for them- 
selves, Childebert and Clotaire murdered two, but the third 
got away from them through the help of friends. His 
name was Cleodald, and, as he grew to manhood, he 
showed his wisdom by letting kingly honors alone and 
dying the death of a Christian hermit. The palace of 



The Merovingians. 35 

Saint Cloud now stands on the spot whci tlu^ lv dlait 




"Childebert and Clotaire murdered two. 

and sensible man lived more than a thousand years ago. 



36 Young People's History of France. 

All of his brothers being dead, Clotaire became king 
of the whole of France in 558. Then, being sated with 
crime and wrenched with remorse, he passed away in 561, 
first dividing his kingdom among his four sons. Of these, 
Caribert died within a year in Paris, and Chilperic I., of 
Soissons, partitioned the kingdom with his brother, Sige- 
bert, of Austrasia, and Gentran, of Orleans or Burgundy. 
Probably no wickeder women ever lived than Fredegonde, 
wife of Chilperic, and Brunehaut, wife of Sigebert. Their 
ambition and mutual hatred caused the most atrocious 
feuds between the brothers. Fredegonde caused Sigebert 
to be murdered, and there is little doubt that she hired 
assassins to put her own husband out of the way. 

Clotaire 11. succeeded his father Chilperic, but being a 
mere boy, his mother governed the kingdom, with the aid 
of the mayor of the palace. She died suddenly, and 
Brunehaut some years later, by order of Clotaire was 
stripped naked and fastened to a wild horse and dragged 
to death. 

Dagobert 1. became king in 628. He proved the best 
of a very bad lot, and reigned not only over Austrasia and 
Nuestria, but over most of the people of Gaul from the 
Pyrenees to the Rhine and beyond the Rhine on the east 
to the forests of Central Germany ; but when he died ten 
years later the decline began. His successors were men- 
tally weak, with some of them hardly above the grade 
of fools. The office of Mayor of the Palace, or Major Domi, 
as he was called, grew in importance. At first the duty 
of these officers was to help ,the king manage his kingdom, 
but they were now called upon to manage the king him- 



Tke Merovingians. 



37 



self, which was not so hard since the monarchs had not 
enough spirit to reseat being led around by the nose. 
The Merovingians who succeeded Dagobert are spoken of 




" Fastened to a wild horse and dragged to death." 



in history as the "Sluggard Kings/' the real name given • 
to them meaning ^^^ Do-Nothing Kings." 

They wore long hair as a sign of royalty, but were so 
wan and effeminate that a sturdy American boy of twelve 
years could have made footballs of the whole lot. Had 
you been living in those times you might have seen one 



38 Young People's History of France. 

of them riding from one of his immense farms to another 
in a covered cart drawn by oxen, whose plodding gait just 
suited their tastes. Arriving at a farm they would 
manage to rouse sufficiently to climb out with the help of 
their assistants and begin eating and drinking, which 
they kept up until everything w^as gone, when they would 
allow their servants to lift them into the cart again and 
be dragged to the next farm. By that time the king 
would be hungry and thirsty again, and resume his former 
carousal, then going home to sleep until he could think 
of some other pleasure to be gratified. 

It isn't worth while to particularize further. You 
will find the list of the good-for-nothings at the end of this 
history, and it isn't interesting to read the record of a 
lot of fools, who rarely or never roused themselves to 
action unless to commit some crime. The real rulers of 
the country were the mayors and the priests who acted 
together. The Church did vast good, for without it the 
country must have lapsed into barbarism. It taught the 
ignorant, protected the helpless, and fed the starving. 
Moreover, in the Church all ranks were leveled and a 
slave might become a priest or a pope. 

A strange power threatened the country in the latter 
part of the Merovingian dynasty. Mohammed born in 
• Mecca, Arabia, in 570, was a remarkable man and military 
leader. He claimed to be the prophet of God, and the 
book which contains his laws and teaching is called the 
Koran. Thousands of people flocked to his standard, 
and when he died at Medina (me-dee-yiah) in 630, he had 
become the founder of one of the religions of the world, 
whose believers to-day number nearly 200,000,000. 




Mohammed Preaches the Unity of God in Mecca. 

When about forty years of age, Mohammed, moved to teach a new faith, 
decdared himself the prophet of an all-mighty, all-wise, everlasUug, 
all-just, but merciful God. He was sincere and earnest in his teachmgs, 
vet left to his successors a military religion to be propagated by arms, 
^ 39 



40 



Young People's History of France. 



The Saracens under Mohammed's successors were so 
thrilled with wild fanaticism that in the eighth cen- 
tury they set out to conquer all other nations. They 

)rought Egypt, Northern 
Africa and Spain into sub- 
jection, and then resolved 
to subjugate France, Ger- 
many, Italy and Constanti- 
nople and unite them into 
one vast empire. It was a 
colossal ambition and it was 
not unnatural that the Mo- 
hammedans should have had 
absolute faith in its suc- 
cess. The Saracens crossed 
the Pyrenees in 732 and 
swept everything before 
them. Multitudes of Chris- 
tians gave up in despair, 
believing the end was at 
hand, and that no human 
power could check the triumph of Mohammedism. 

In the face of the awful peril, the deliverer appeared in 
the person of Charles, a new Mayor of the Palace, who 
seized the Church lands and distributed them among 
those who agreed to help him turn back the Moslem in- 
vasion. The two enemies met at Tours [toor) in 732. The 
battle raged all day, and it is said that Charles with his 
ponderous battle axe beat down the frantic Saracens, as 
if he wielded a weapon forged by a thunderbolt. Thou- 




The KiniT and hib Major Domi 



The Merovingians. 41 

sands of the invaders were slain, and another of the de- 
cisive battles of the world was won. The fearful inva- 
sion was turned back, and a measureless service rendered 
to Christendom, for, but for this victory, the Mohammedans 
would have penetrated to the heart of Europe and crushed 
out the Christian religion. On that memorable day, 
Charles won the title of Charles Martel, or Charles the \ 
Sledge Hammer. ^ 

On the death of Thierry III. no new election of king * 
was made. Charles Martel went to Italy to aid Pope 
Gregory III. in repelling the invasion of the Lombards. 
He died there, leaving the duties and dignities of his 
office to his sons Pepin and Carloman. The latter, 
though a good warrior, soon withdrew to a monastery, 
leaving Pepin sole ruler and king in all but name. 
Twenty years after the battle of Tours, Pepin sent mes- 
sengers to the Pope of Rome asking that his title of king 
should be formally acknowledged, and the Pope con- 
sented. In the spring of 752, Archbishop Boniface 
anointed Pepin with holy oil, and placed the crown upon 
his head. Next, Childeric, the last of the " Sluggard 
Kings " was shorn of his dangling locks as a sign that 
his feeble reign and that of his stupid family was ended. 

Pepin, despite his very short stature, possessed daunt- • 
less courage and prodigious strength. Being present once 
in the amphitheatre, when a lion was pitted against a 
bull, he called out to the spectators : " The combatants 
are unequal ! Who will separate them ? " 

As no one volunteered, Pepin leaped into the arena, 
cleft the lion's skull, and then with a single sweep of hia 



42 Young People's History of France. 

sword cut off the head of the bull. " There," said he, 
turning to the spectators, " you call me ^ le Bref ' in de- 
rision, but am I not as worthy of being your king as the 
tallest man among you ?" 

Pepin had been king only a short time when the 
Pope, alarmed by the inroads of the Lombards, implored 
his aid. Pepin gathered his warriors, drove the Lom- 
bards back, retook the captured cities and, gathering the 
keys of the gates, placed themx on the altar of St. 
Peter's. Thus the Pope was made not only master of 
Rome, but of a large district beside, and temporal sov- 
ereignty of the Papacy was established to last for many 
centuries. 



CHAPTER in. 

CARLOYINGIA^rS. — 752-987. 

PEPIN having rendered his important service to the 
Pope of Rome, started to return home. He had 
with him his son Charles, and, upon reaching 
Tours the father was seized with a mortal illness, but 
rallied sufficiently to reach Paris. There, feeling that 
death was at hand, he called the nobles and bishops to- 
gether and divided his kingdom between his sons, Charles 
and Carloman. Then he died and was buried in Saint 
Denis {dee-nee'). 

Carloman did not live long, and his brother Charles 
became the sole ruler of the kingdom. He is knowp in 







Cm 
O 

t-H 



O 
a 

c 

a) 

c 

s 



44 Young People's History of France. 

history as Charles the Great or Charlemagne [sharlmane). 
His German name was Karl, and later Karl the Great. 
In after years, the epitaph set over the tomb of Pepin was : 
^' Pepin, Father of Charlemagne'' 

This monarch proved himself one of the greatest men 
that ever lived. He was daring, wise and ambitious; he 
aimed to brmg about unity, system and order in his do- 
minions, was vigorous and untiring, and he seemed to 
possess within himself every quality for the wonderfully 
successful ruler of which his country stood in sore need 
at that time. 

The government of Charlemagne extended over a 
widely scattered people, and a territory much larger than 
the France of to-day, and he found that his task was a 
gigantic one. The Aquitanians in the southwest rebelled, 
and he reduced them to obedience. Then the Lombards 
again invaded the country which his father had given to 
the Pope, and that potentate once more begged for help. 
Charlemagne marched against the Lombards, overcame 
them, annexed their country to his own, and confirmed 
the Pope in the possessions, which, but for Charlemagne, 
would have slipped away from him. He was crowned 
King of the Lombards in 774, with the iron crown of 
Lombardy. Do you know why this crown bears that 
singular name ? Through the inner golden circlet of the 
crown runs a thin iron wire which tradition says was 
beaten out from one of the nails taken from the cross on 
which the Saviour was crucified. This is incredible. 

Charlemagne was an ardent champion of Christianity. 
To the north; beyond the Rhine, the Saxons still clung to 



Carlovingians. 



45 



tlie lands, which Caesar had tried in vain to wrest from 
them. They were a sturdy, brave people, and when 
C harlemagne 
set out to con- 
quer them, he 
found the 
work the 
hardest of his 
life. They and 
the Saxons 
hated each 
other and the 
fighting was 
desperate and 
lasted a long 
time, but 
in the end 
Charlemagne 
prevailed, the 
Saxon chief 
submitted 
(785) and he 
and all his 
people were 
baptized and 
accepted 
Christianity. 
This con- 
quest made Charlemagne ruler over nearly all of Ger- 
many, but knowing the turbulent character of the 




Charlemagne. 



46 Young People's History of France. 

men, and the danger of allowing them to remain 
united, he removed large numbers and settled them in 
different parts of France. Thus by breaking the nations 
into fragments, as may be said, he so weakened their 
power, that he felt little fear of more revolts. Then, in 
order to be within easy striking distance of the Saxons 
who stayed at home, he made his capital at Aix-la- 
Chapelle (akes la-shali-joeV), which is near the Rhine. 
Charlemagne next turned his attention to Spain, 
where the Moors in the northern part had revolted 
against Mohammedan authority. They begged Charle- 
magne to go to their help and promised to become his 
subjects if he would do so. He marched across the 
Pyrenees and occupied several of their cities. By that 
time, the Moors began to fear that their new master 
would prove a harsher one than their old, and they were 
base enough to turn against their powerful friend, who 
found his situation so dangerous, that he decided to 
withdraw from the country. He started along the old 
Roman road leading from Spain to France, through the 
narrow pass of Roncesvalles (ron-se-val'Ies) . The main 
army made the passage safely, and the rear guard 
followed under the command of Roland, his nephew, a 
brave and noble-hearted knight, whom the Moors hated 
because of his many chivalrous deeds and his prowess as 
a tremendous fighter. In the depths of the wild moun- 
tains and in the gloomy pass, where the brave men had 
no means of defending themselves, the Moors attacked 
them in overwhelming numbers and with a desperation 
that nothing could withstand. From above they rolled 




Eoland at the Pass of Koncesvalles, 



47 



48 Young People's History of France. 

down enormous rocks upon tlie heads of the soldiers, 
who, being without any means of escape, were killed to 
the last man. For many years afterwards the people of 
Koncesvalles were accustomed to point out to strangers 
this valley, half-filled with rocks, which was called 
'^Roland's Tomb." The sad incident has been celebrated, 
many a time in song and story. 

But Charlemagne's fighting was not over. A violent 
outbreak took place among the Saxons, who burned the 
churches built by the missionaries, killed the preachers 
and drove the Christians out of the country. Upon the 
approach of Charlemagne with a strong army, the Saxons 
were terrified and made their submission; but the angry 
King demanded that the rebels should be given up. Four 
thousand five hundred were brought to his camp, and the 
stern ruler caused every one to be put to death. Roused 
to frenzy, the Saxons revolted again, and Charlemagne 
ravaged the country with fire and sword. The malcon- 
tents were subdued and the novel plan of making Chris- 
tians not by persuasion but by force was adopted. The 
Church had many thousands added to it, and, following 
the plan I have mentioned, Charlemagne settled hundreds 
of families in different parts of France, where they could 
set no more rebellions on foot. 

When Pope Leo III. ascended the throne, he was 
seized by a number of conspiring priests, who badly 
wounded and threw him into prison. Charlemagne hur- 
ried to his help and restored his crown to him and you 
may be sure the Pope was grateful. On Christmas Day, 
800, while the King was kneeling at prayer in St. Peter's 




4 — Ellis' France. 



50 Young People's History of France. 

at Eome, the Pope walked up to liim, threw a magnificent 
purple mantle over his shoulders and saluted, him as 
Emperor of the West, a grand title borne by the Roman 
emperors since tlie time of Constantine, the first Christian 
emperor, three centuries before. Charlemagne resolved 
with the help of the Pope to establish the Holy Roman 
Empire on a lasting foundation. Europe was to be one 
state, one people, and one Church. 

This great man was controlled by a great ambition, 
but he entered upon the vast work with confidence. 
Aided by a council of nobles and bishops, he prepared a 
code of laws regulating Church, military and financial 
affairs, and sent delegates throughout the kingdom to 
make certain those laws were obeyed. In this way, the 
poor as well as the rich, were benefited. The old national 
assemblies, which had fallen into disuse under the Slug- 
gard Kings, were revived and the people elected repre- 
sentatives who took part in the meetings of the assem- 
blies. A true son of the Church, he enforced stricter 
discipline among the clergy and in the monasteries which 
had fallen away from their duty. No less important, he 
established schools all over the kingdom. He felt a pro- 
found admiration for learned men, a.nd, lacking education 
himself, he became one of the hardest of students. He 
compelled the sons of the nobles to study, warning them 
that if they were idle, they would receive no honors from 
him. He learned Latin so thoroughly that he could speak 
it as well as his own tongue. He mastered Greek also, 
and became an entertaining conversationalist, but though 
he tried hard to learn to write, he never made much of a 
success, for he began too late in life. 



Carlovingians. 



51 



His example as a student had the best effect upon 
others. He encouraged commerce, opened new roads, and 
established great annual fairs, where merchants gathered 
from all parts of Europe to buy and sell. And yet the 
task he had laid out for himself was an impossible one, 




Signature of Charlemagne. (The Cross with the Four Letters, K. E. L. S.) 

mainly because the people over whom he ruled were not 
of the same" race, and their differences could not be fused 
together. Among his subjects, were Italians, French and 
Germans, each of whom desired to have their own lan- 
guage, their customs and their laws. With such dis- 
cordant elements, there could be no real, lasting unity, 
but through his indomitable genius, Charlemagne held 



52 



Young People's History of France. 



them in a sort of union during his life. He died in 814, 
at the age of seventy-two, murmuring in Latin, -'Into 
Thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit." 

Before he died, he summoned his 
lords and bishops and presented Louis, 
one of his many sons (for Charlemagne 
was a polygamist with numerous chil- 
dren), as their future sovereign and 
placed a crown on his head, which he 
had just rested on the altar. Louis was 
king of Aquitaine, during the latter part 
of his father's reign. 

In obedience to his last wishes, the 
body of Charlemagne was interred in a 
splendid tomb in the church of Saint 
Marie, and propped up in a royal chair 
of state, with a sceptre in his hand and 
a.n open Bible on his lap, and his feet 
resting on a buckler given to him by Leo 
III. ; but the attempt to make his lifeless 
body a material image of lasting power 
was vain. Those who came after him were pygmies as 
compared with him, and the magnificent empire he had 
created soon began to crumble to pieces. 

If you will look over the list of kings who succeeded 
Charlemagne, you wull notice such nicknames as the 
"Bald," the "Fat," the "Stammerer," the "Simple," 
and finally, "le Faineant," which really meant "Fool." 
Had France been compelled to depend upon these incapa- 
bles, she never would have reached her leading place 




Statuette of Charle- 
magne, now in Paris. 



Carlovingians. 



53 



among European nations, but other men with brains and 

ability took 

part in the 

all- important 

work. 

Under 
Charlemagne 
and his suc- 
cessors, the 
feudal sys- 
tem, as it is 
called, came 
into exist- 
ence. It was 
in 877, that 
the principle 
of hereditary 
feudal de- 



scent was 
clearly estab- 
lished. 

Going 
back to the ,^.^^, 
time when ^ '^ 
the Franks 
first invaded 
Gaul, each 
raiding band 
was distinct 




A Feudal Castle. 



from the others and som.etimes hostile to them. After 



54 Young People's History of France. 

every victor}', the chief of a band and his followers divided 
the plunder. When they settled in a country they par- 
titioned the land in the same way. Still later, the men 
who received it bound themselves to render military ser- 
vice to the chiefs from whom they had the land. The 
example of the chiefs was followed by the leading men, 
who finding they had more land than they needed, granted 
a portion of it to poorer persons, who bound themselves 
to give their military services to the donor when he 
needed them. 

Besides these two classes, there were a great many 
men who held independently a few acres of land, and 
who, therefore, owed no military service to anyone; but, 
in an age when might made right, they were without the 
means of protecting themselves from robbery by their 
more powerful neighbors. Such robberies were common. 
The only way the victim could save himself from spolia- 
tion was to surrender his modest possessions to some 
chief or lord, who gave them back on condition that the 
man sliould hold himself subject to call for service. In 
payment for this, the lord or chief bound himself to pro- 
tect him in the enjoyment of his property. 

Besides those named, there were the serfs, who were 
mostly natives of the country. They were bound to the 
soil and went with it. While they could not be bought 
or sold as slaves — the lowest class of all — they were as 
much a part of an estate as the grass and trees that grew 
upon it. 

Here, then, you had the feudal system. At the top 
stood the King; next below were the great lords, who. 



Carlo vingians. 55 

among their dependants, were as much king as he; next 
were thv oii'.all landholders and then the serfs. The few 
absolute slaves are not included in the reckoning, since 
they had no legal rights. The name feudalism meant 
•'landed property." Beginning at the bottom, every man 
owed servi(3e to some one above him, until you reached 
the King-- and starting with him, and going down again, 
every man owed protection to some one below him, until 
you got to the bottom. 

There was terrible tyranny under the feudal system; 
yet it was better than anarchy and the intolerable Roman 
despotism which it supplanted. The treaty of Yerdun, 
made among the three grandsons of Charlemagne, in 843, 
narrowed the boundaries of France, which no longer ex- 
tended to the Rhine on the north, or to the Rhone on the 
southeast, since all the strip of territory, from the Medi- 
terran to the North Sea, was annexed to Italy. Thus was 
laid the foundation of the three great sovereignties of Italy, 
Germany and France. 

The far-seeing Charlemagne had warned his country- 
men that theh^ real peril w^as from the piratical Northmen, 
as the Danes and Norwegians were called. They were 
daring freebooters, who were continually ravaging their 
neighbors,. and were sure at no distant day to turn their 
attention to France. The great man had been dead only 
a short time, when the sea robbers appeared at the mouths 
of the Loire and Seine. They belonged to the same terri- 
ble warriors who had invaded England, Russia, Italy and 
Spain, and who, five hundred years before Columbus dis- 
covered America, settled Iceland and planted colonies on 
the frozen shores of Greenland. 



56 



Young People's History of France. 



The laborers fled from the fields along the coast, where 
the Northmen burned villages and murdered peasants, but 
when they attempted to seize the lands, the ^ ~ rushed 

out f 

s t r o n -i, a c 1 u o a i : ; 
many tin^^- - '••' '^ ^■ 
them b:''2 . 

In 885, RoV 
giant in stature, 
sailed up the Seine 
with 700 vessels and 
30,000 warriors and 
laid siege to the city 
of Paris. He kept 
up the siege for more 
than a year, and then 
abandoned it and fell 
back to Eouen {rwan or too' en), where he made his head- 
quarters, while attempting to subjugate the surrounding 
country. Charles the Simple, who was King, offered to 
give Rollo the territory he had occupied on condition that 
he pledged allegiance to him. " 

The negotiation lasted a long time, the Church acting 
as the agent. Rollo was offered the King's daughter in 
marriage and a territory more than 10,000 square miles 
in extent, having Rouen for its capital, the simple condi- 
tion being the one named, that Rollo should acknowledge 
allegiance to the King. The Norse chieftain agreed to 
the conditions. 

The grant w^as made in solemn form in 912. When 




Arrival of the Northmen. 



Carlovingians. 57 

concluded, Rollo was informed that all that remained was 

for him to kneel and kiss the King's foot. "Never!" 

was the fierce reply; '^1 bow to no man, much less kiss his 

P-+ +,T-!is absurd ceremony was believed to be 

Aia iiui:«:- . is finally persuaded to do it by 

.w--7£..^ ne of his warriors to make the 

I ne man partly stooped, and, seizing 

the King's foot, gav-j t such a sudden hoist that Charles 

simple ;-prawled over on his back and everybody 

broke into iaugutcr (excepting the King, who must have 

felt the appropriateness of his name) at the ridiculous 

sight. 

The Norsemen proved a valuable gain to the country. 
They accepted the Christian faith, rebuilt the churches 
and monasteries they had destroyed, and adopted the 
French tongue and the feudal system. After a time, the 
province became the most prosperous and most civilized 
portion of France. The Northmen by and by were called 
Normans and their district Normandy. 



CHA 

CAPETIA^ -■■'.- 

Hugh Ccqjet-Iiuhert II.-j: 

PEACE having been n.^v^c witn the terrible Northmen, 
the question arose after a time as to who should 
be King of France. Many Avere disgusted with 
the feeble Carlo vingians, who steadily grew worse and 
worse, until none was left who was of the least account 
at all. Charles the Simple made Laon (lah'oivn), in the 
northeast of France his capital. The King and his 
successors would not speak any language except. German, 
and when there was any trouble with the feudal lords, 
they scrambled across the border and begged the 
protection of the German emperor. 

The strife between the barons and the Carlovingians 
lasted until the time of Louis V . the Fool, when happily 
it ended and the barons or lords in 987, chose Hugh 
Capet (Jcap-ca/), one of their number, King. '^ Capet " 
was a nickname supposed to mean '' cowled," in allusion 
to the cowl which he wore as lay abbot of several of the 
chief abbeys of France. Some think the word means the 
'' Stubborn." Be that as it may, the new King was a 
thorough Frenchman ; he was more of a national 
sovereign through his election by the great nobles of the 

58 



Capetians. 59 

north than any of his predecessors had been, and his 
accession is considered as the beginning of the proper 
history of France. 

But you must remember several important facts. 
During the reign of Hugh Capet, the area of France was 
hardly a twentieth of what it is to-day. Although he 
was King, he was no more than the nominal head of a 
number of great lords who considered themselves almost 
if not quite his equal in authority. 

''Who made you count?" he demanded one day, in 
a dispute with one of his nobles, who, like a flash 
answered with the insolent question : 

'' Who made you King ? " 

Paris was the capital, and the dukedom of Burgundy 
on the east and Normandy on the west acknowledged 
allegiance to Hugh Capet, but it meant little, and the 
King had no national army and no national revenue, 
being wholly dependent upon his retainers. His short 
reign was mostly occupied in a struggle for recognition 
as real King, and he died in 996, leaving his crown to 
his son Robert the Pious. 

For years the belief had been spreading throughout 
Europe that the world would come to an end in the year 
1000. The date was now close at hand, and the awful 
day when the elements should melt with fervent heat, the 
heavens be rolled together as a scroll, and God should 
judge the quick and the dead, drove every other thought 
from people's minds. The rich and the powerful, as they 
are impelled to do in the presence of death, thought to 
make their peace with God by large gifts to the Church ; 



60 Young People^s History of France. 

some went into monasteries in atonement for their sins, 
and others made long pilgrimages to distant lands. The 
tillers of the soil stopped work and spent the days and 
nights in agonized prayer. The opening words of all 
deeds and contracts were, '' The end of the world being 
at hand." 

As the year 999 drew to a close, multitudes swarmed 
into churches and the graveyards were filled with wailing 
men and women. Prayer and supplication, fasting and 
scourging, and the moans and cries of anguish burdened 
the air. Others, conscious of their good and upright 
lives, waited for the great day in serene hope, knowing 
that having lived such lives all was well with them. 

As the flaming sun rose above the horizon, a hush fell 
upon the terrified swarms. They were listening for the 
sound of the last trumpet that was to summon all to 
answer for the deeds done in the body, and were looking 
for the appearance of the angel in the heavens. But the 
minutes of intolerable suspense slowly stretched into 
hours. The sun climbed the sky, but the graves did not 
yawn, nor did the angel sound his trumpet. A faint hope 
sprang up in the hearts of a few. Hours later, some 
began to whisper that perhaps a mistake had been made, 
and they ventured to taste of food and to swallow water. 
Then other days went by, just as they had been doing for 
years. The rich rufhans came sneaking out of the monas- 
teries ; many of those who had been the loudest in prayer, 
ceased supplicating ; others who had bewailed their sins 
turned to them again. All seemed to forget that that 
dread day, for which all others are made, when we shall 



Capetians. 61 

be judged by One who cannot err, was only postponed; 
come it will, sooner or later, and you, I and all of us, 
will be there. 

In these modern days, when a famine occurs in any 
country, people elsewhere speedily send food thither by 
means of swift steamers, sailing vessels or perhaps rail- 
way trains; but a few hundred years ago the case was 
different, for none of these helps was within reach, and 
the news could not spread in the brief time that it now 
takes to become known to all the world. France suffered 
from a great blight between 1027 and 1033. Men, women 
and children, in their gnawing hunger, devoured grass, 
roots, the bark of trees, or anything that would stay for 
a time the pangs of starvation. The famine grew more 
dreadful, and then many fell upon one another, and 
the famishing wild beasts came out of the forests and tore 
the emaciated people to shreds and fought over their 
bones. Pestilence added its horrors, and so woful were 
the days that all conflict stopped and men bound them- 
selves by oaths to make war no more. 

But when better times came, the barons renewed their 
warfare. The indignant Church interfered and partly 
checked the shameless wickedness by the establishment 
of the Truce of God, which forbade fighting from Wed- 
nesday evening until Monday morning of every week, and 
during such sacred seasons as Lent and Advent. This 
was a good step, although, as I have said, it only lessened 
the violence and wickedness, without stopping it. 

Eobert II., who became king in 996, was a pious and 
humane man, and married his cousin Bertha, a noble 



62 Young People's History of France. 

woman. But the Churcli forbade the marriage of cousins, 
and the King was ordered to give up his wife. He loved 
her too dearly to do so, and. the Pope excommunicated 
him — that is to say, he pronounced him accursed and de- 
nied to him the privileges and consolations of religion. 
Next, the Pope launched his most terrifying bolt, by 
placing France under an Interdict. All religious services 
were forbidden in the kingdom, no bells were tolled for 
the dead, no marriages were permitted, the sacred pictures 
and images were veiled in black, no masses were allowed, 
and, in short, the country was declared outcast from the 
Church. Bertha was so appalled by the sufferings and 
misery thus caused, that she begged her husband to leave 
her. Finally he consented, whereupon she withdrew into 
a nunnery and soon afterward died. 

Robert's second wife, Constance by name, was the very 
opposite in character to the gentle Bertha. She was am- 
bitious, had a furious temper, and made her husband so 
afraid of her, that she compelled him to consent to the 
execution of twelve heretics. What a devil she must 
have been, for she struck one of the poor victims such a 
vicious blow with an iron rod that she destroyed one of 
his eyes, and the same man had once been her confessor! 

Those were evil days, when superstition chained all 
minds. The orthodox Christians were those who yielded 
entire obedience to the Church, while those who did not 
do so were considered to be heretics and were burned to 
death and punished as ruthlessly as the early Christians 
had been given over to be torn of wild beasts by the 
pagan emperors of Rome. The hand of everyone was 



Capetians. 63 

turned against tlie Jews, who were pounded, kicked, 
mauled, tortured, stabbed and killed, and the Christians 
who did all this claimed to be doing a service to God. 

While Robert was King, a Frenchman of Auvergne 
{o-vairn') was elected Pope under the title of Sylvester 11. 
There were many remarkable things about this potentate. 
He was one of the best educated men of the age, studying 
first in the monastery of Aurillac and afterward under 
Moslem instructors at Cordova, Spain. He made many 
useful inventions, among them the balance-clock, which 
was used until the adoption of the pendulum in 1650. 
So profound was his knov/ledge of mathematics that 
many looked upon him as a magician. He lived to be 
nearly a hundred years old. 

Robert led so unhappy a life with the savage Con- 
stance, that he was glad when death relieved him of his 
bondage. He passed away in 1031, after a reign of more 
than thirty years and was succeeded by his son known as 
Henry I. Queen Constance tried to secure the crown for 
her own son Robert, but failed, and the King ceded Bur- 
gundy to his step brother. 

Mindful of the trouble his father got himself into by 
marrying his cousin, Henry t ok good care to avoid any 
risk of that nature, by taking as his wife Anne, the 
daughter of a Russian duke. Henry, it should be said, 
was only the third son of Robert. One of his elder 
brothers was dead and the other was an idiot, which being 
the fact, it is hard to understand why the crown was not 
given to him. 

Nothing of special account occurred during the reign 



64 



Young People's History of France. 



. 1 



of Henry which ended in 1060. He made several excm 
sions into Normandy, but they were unsuccessful. His 
brother, Robert, to whom he ceded Burgundy, was the 

head of the first Capetian 
House of Burgundy, which 
lasted until 1361. Henry was 
succeeded by his son, Philip I., 
during whose reign, Duke Wil- 
liam of Burgundy, a descend- 
ant of Rollo, the Northman, 
crossed the Channel and at- 
tacked England. He had no 
legal claim to the throne, but, 
as stated in our history of Eng- 
land, his pretext was the prom- 
ise of Edward, the Confessor, 
that he would make the duke 
his successor. 

With a large force of 
archers and cavalry, William 
the Conqueror, as he was 
called, landed near Hastings on 
September 27, 1066. A great battle was fought October 
14, between Pevensey and Hastings, in which the Saxon 
King Harold was defeated and left dead on the field. 
William then advanced to London, which could offer no 
resistance, and, on Christmas day, he was crowned King 
of England in Westminster Abbey. Some years before 
this important event, Eoger and Robert Guiscard {ghees- 
Mr'), two adventurous brothers completed the conquest 




Coronation of a King, time of 
William the Conqueror. 




Roojer Guiscard's Fleet Destroying the Enemy off Naples. 
b— Ellis' France. 65 



66 Young People's History of France. 

of Sicily. They quarreled in 1060, but soon made up 
again and Calabria was divided between them. Robert 
aided Roger at the siege of Palermo, of which he retained 
the sovereignty, giving the rest of Sicily to his brother. 
Robert was one of the most accomplished soldiers of his 
age. He extended his conquests throughout Southern 
Italy and thus put an end to the long dominion of the 
Eastern emperors. Roger conquered Sicily from the 
Saracens after several years' war, and his son ruled over 
the Norman possessions in both Sicily and Italy, conquer- 
ing the free cities of Naples and Amalfi, but the kingdom 
became extinct and in 1189 passed under the sway of the 
German emperors. 



CHAPTER Y. 

CAPETIANS. — 987-1328, 
The Crusades— (\m^-\21{)). 

Ihave told you how the civilized world was scared out 
of its senses by the belief that the year 1000 would 
bring the end of all things, and everyone was about to 
be called to answer at the awful Judgment Seat. Among 
the many means of turning away the wrath of God was 
that of making long and dangerous journeys, called pil- 
grimages, to Palestine, where the Saviour of mankind 
had been buried and where his tomb was guarded. 



Capetians. 



67 



To spend one night on the hill where the Saviour of 
mankind was put to death, and to touch the holy sepulchre 




Submission of the Saracens to Roger Gniscard^ 

was considered sufficient penance for the sins of a life- 



time. 



Thousands who went thither believed it would be 



68 Young People's History of France. 

their last undertaking on earth. They took with them 
their ascension robes, in the hope that while offering their 
prayers at the tomb of the Saviour they would be caught 
up and taken to heaven. In these days a trip to the 
Holy Land is not much of a journey, for we have steam- 
ships and many of the towns and cities mentioned in the 
Bible are connected by railways, but in the Middle Ages 
the pilgrimage was expensive, long and dangerous. Pi- 
rates roamed over the seas and robbers prowled on land, 
on the watch to rob or slay the pilgrims. Jerusalem was 
in possession of the Arabs, who were sometimes oppres- 
sive. Christians were heavily taxed and their consciences 
were hurt by being compelled to make their submission 
to the infidel rulers. 

Palestine fell into the hands of the Turks in the year 
1076, and they became more cruel to the Christians than 
the Arabs. Among the pilgrims who made the journey 
I have been telling you about was a small, lean man, who 
had been a French soldier, had turned monk and then, 
in order to lead a holy life, went off by himself and spent 
nearly all of his time in fasting and prayer. In history 
this strange person is known as Peter the Hermit. He 
had little education, but he was eloquent, wrapt up in 
his religion and his whole being glowed with fanaticism. 

He was treated so ill by the Turks, who have always 
been a savage people, that his soul was stirred to wrath, 
and he resolved to rouse the Christian world to the deter- 
mination to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the infidels. 
Clothed in sackcloth and barefooted, he started on a tour 
through Europe, calling upon all to join in the holy cru- 



Capetlaiis. 69 

sade. Wherever lie could find a few persons to listen, he 
exhorted with a fervor that thrilled his listeners. Some- 
times he would mount a box, or a stone, or stand at the 
corner in a town or on the highways, and appeal to all 
Christians to unite in the sacred work. He visited Pope 
Urban II., who was so much impressed by what he said, 
that he encouraged him to persevere and promised to 
give him every aid in his power. Besides, the prospect 
of great gain of power by the Church had much weight 
with the potentate. 

The Pope called a council at Clermont, in Central 
France, where an immense multitude gathered, and both 
he and Peter made impassioned speeches to their listeners, 
calling upon them to take up arms and go forward in the 
effort to deliver Jerusalem. There are no more impulsive 
people in the world than the French, and the appeals 
were like a torch applied to the dry prairie grass. It 
spread into a conflagration which swept over the country, 
wrapping all in the flames of an unalterable resolve. The 
volunteers crowded forward by thousands and tens of 
thousands. Their badge was a cross cut from red cloth 
and fastened on their breasts. 

This madness broke out in 1095, and, in the following 
spring, the First Crusade left France under the lead of 
Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless, a decayed 
Norman Knight. It was one of the wildest schemes ever 
formed in the twisted brain of man. Multitudes joined 
the rabble from other countries. Among them were 
thousands of old men, women and children, only a few 
of whom were armed and nearly every one of whom was 



70 



Young Peoj)le's History of France. 



as poor as he could be, without provisions, money and 
with only scant clothing. The faith in the sacredness of 
their mission made them indifferent to the common affairs 
of life. Despite the remonstrances of the Pope, who saw 
their unpreparedness, they refused to wait until better 
preparations could be made, and answered all protests 
with the cry, '^ God wills it ! God wills it !" 

A vanguard of 15,000 men under Walter the Penni- 




" God wills it ! God wills it ! " 
Crusaders on the Way to the Holy Land. 

less led the way, and was soon followed by Peter the 
Hermit with fully 100,000 people. Their route, of which 
they literally knew nothing, except the general direction 
necessary to take, was two thousand miles long and most 
of it led through a dangerous country. They poured into 
Germany like a great plague, and as evidence of their 
gentle Christianity slaughtered every Jew they could find. 
They robbed the villages of food, clothing, provisions, and 




Peter the Hermit Preaching tl>e First Crusade. 



71 



72 Young People's History of France. 

everything they needed and a great deal they did not 
need. By the time they reached Hungary, they were like 
so many ravening wolves. The people beat them off with 
chibs, pitchforks, stones, spears, and any weapons they 
could seize. As proof of their utter ignorance, they cried 
out at sight of every new town, "Is this Jerusalem ?" 

The history of the First Crusade is one of the most 
pitiful records in history. Men, women and children fell 
down and died at every mile of the way, and when the 
horde of famished tramps reached Asia, more than half 
their original number were dead. The Emperor Alexis 
was so shocked at sight of the ragged vagrants that he 
hurried them on into Asia, where they were furiously 
assailed by the Turks and all but a few slain. Their 
bleaching bones served to guide the path of those who 
plodded after them to the Holy Land. 

The Second Crusade was vastly the superior in every 
respect of the first. The leaders were French as were 
nearly all their followers. It is said that they numbered 
100,000 knights and 600,000 infantry, which took differ- 
ent routes under different chieftains. The French of the 
North and the Lorrainers followed the course through 
Germany and Hungary, and were under tlie lead of God- 
frey, Duke of Bouillon (bioee'oii), one of the purest, brav- 
est and most knightly men that ever lived. At one stroke 
of his sword he could sever the neck of a camel or split a 
small apple in halves when held in a man's hand, witliout 
injury to the palm. In all his numerous fierce contests 
he was never overthrown. He was beloved by everyone, 
for he was humble, modest, devout and without an equal 
as a warrior, 



Capetians. 73 

The French of the South, led by the wealthy and 
powerful Count of Toulouse {tuo-Iooz'), crossed the Alps 
and passed mto Thrace. The Normans of Italy were 
joined by the Duke of Normandy and Counts of Blois 
(hlwah)^ Flanders and Vermandois, and all sailed over the 
Adriatic, reaching Constantinople in 1097. The Emperor 
was alarmed, fearing this formidable force would begin 
its carreer of conquest there. Indeed a number of the 
leaders wished to do so, and the Pope himself would not 
have been displeased, but Godfrey would not permit and 
the army moved on. 

The first great victory of the Crusaders was the 
siege and capture of Antioch, but they paid dearly 
for it. Among the few gaunt, ragged survivors of the 
First Crusade was Peter the Hermit, who joined the 
second, but he deserted under the stress of a terrible 
famine. The garrison of Antioch numbered 20,000, 
while the Crusaders had been reduced to 300,000. After 
a siege of seven months, they secured entrance into 
the city through treachery and killed ten thousand of 
the defenders. 

After tedious delays, 50,000 Crusaders left Antioch 
for Jerusalem, of whose walls they caught sight on June 
10, 1099. Immediately all fell on their knees, sobbing, 
praying, kissing the earth, giving thanks to God, and 
thrilled by a resolve that nothing could resist. A general 
assault took place on July 14, and the next day the Cru- 
saders rushed into the city, Godfrey being the first to 
scale the walls. The Moslems fought with fanatical fury 
in the stx^eets and in the Mosque of Omar, but were over- 



74 Young People's History of France. 

come. On that horrible day, 70,000 perished and the 
Jews were burned alive in their synagogue. 

Godfrey was made ruler of the city, under the name 
of '^ Defender of the Holy Sepulchre." His men wished 
to make him King of Jerusalem, but he refused, saying, 
'^ I will never wear a crown of gold, where the Saviour 
of the world was crowned with thorns." The victory of 
Ascalon, won soon after, over an Egyptian army, comple- 
ted the work of the Crusaders. 

The campaign had been a terrific one, and of all that 
maornificent force that set out from France in such hig;h 

o ... 

hope, only 300 knights remained with Godfrey at Jeru- 
salem. He was so wise, just and generous that the 
captured people learned to respect and even to love him. 

He formed a government, which in effect became a 
spot of France moved into that corner of Asia. The laws, 
language and customs of the French were preserved, and 
so strongly did the conquerors and their followers impress 
themselves upon the people, that to-day in the East, all 
Christians, no matter from what part of the world they 
come, are called Franks. 

The kingdom of Jerusalem thus founded was gradu- 
ally extended until it included all of Palestine. In the 
city itself were founded the two famous orders of the 
Knights Hospitallers of St. John and the Knights Tem- 
plars for the defense of the Holy Sepulchre. For about 
a half century the three Latin principalities maintained 
themselves, increasing in power and wealth, and Jerusa- 
lem became the capital of a prominent Christian State. 

France was the parent of the Crusades, which con- 



n 



Young People's History of France. 



tinned for about a century and a half; and gradually drew 
recruits from all parts of Europe. The next Crusade 
(1147) was shared with the Germans, the next (1190) with 

the English, and the next (1202) 
with the Venetians. The follow- 
ing two (1217 and 1228) were un- 
important, and the seventh (1248) 
and the eighth (1270) were exclu- 
sively French and accomplished no 
special results, except to bring 
death and miserv to tens of thous- 
^^:s ands of misguided followers. 

Saladin, who was as perfect a 
knicrht and warrior as Godfrev of 
Bouillon, invaded Palestine with a 
large army of Moslems, and, in 
1187, captured Jerusalem after a 
This event roused Europe to the 
third Crusade, which was led by Frederick Barbarossa, 
Emperor of Germany, Philip Augustus of France, and 
Eichard I. of England. The emperor was drowned while 
crossing a river on horseback, and his army joining the 
armies of the other two. captured Acre after a siege last- 
ing nearly ^ two years. Richard's brusque, overbearing 
disposition angered Philip, who withdrew and returned 
to Europe. Hichard led his forces to Ascalon and defeated 
Saladin, but was unable to capture Jerusalem. This 
terrible warrior performed such vronderful deeds that they 
excited the wondering admiration of Saladin and his fol- 
lowers, as well as of liis uwn soldiers. Saladin was a noble 




A Knight of St. John. 

siesre of two weeks 



Capetians. 



77 



foe, and when he and Richard were not fighting, they met 
and acted as courteously toward each other as brothers. 
It is related that when the English king fell dangerously 




Finding the Dead Body of the Emperor Barbafossa. 

ill of a fever, Saladin visited his camp in disguise, and 
throuo^h his knowledo:e of medicine was able to restore 
his herculean enemy to his usual health and prodigious 
strength. 



78 Young People's History of France. 

But with all his prowess, Richard the Lion Hearted 
was unable to recapture Jerusalem from Saladin. The 
latter, however, made so excellent a treaty with the 
invader, pledging his honor that the pilgrims should be 
protected against injury and oppression (and Richard 
knew nothing would tempt Saladin to break the pledge), 
that the English king returned to his country, where, as 
has been told in our history of England, he was needed. 
Saladin died in 1193, the sultans of Egypt, Aleppo and 
Damascus quarreled, and the Christians of Syria were 
left secure for the time. 

Though the Crusades failed in their original purpose, 
yet they accomplished vast and far-reaching good. Those 
who took a greater or less part in them had been implaca- 
ble enemies, because they did not understand each other. 
Now the scales dropped from their eyes. The French of 
the North and of the South were drawn nearer. By con- 
centrating their aims and energies in one general object, 
professing Christians were less eager to fly at one another's 
throats. Private warfare was stopped or greatly checked; 
feudalism was almost destroyed, for the barons were 
forced to sell their lands that they might raise money 
with which to equip and send their troops abroad. 

Another beneficent result was that of inducino^ kini2:s 
to grant political privileges to towns in return for gifts 
of money in aid of the Crusades. Commerce was en- 
couraged, for many ships had to be employed. Ship- 
building and the art of navigation therefore advanced. 
The East was opened to merchants of the West, and thus 
industry was aroused. Mechanics increased in number 



Capetians. 70 

and guilds were formed for the protection of the different 
industries. 

Still another great gain was the spread of knowledge 
and the progress of science and literature. From the 
Arabs, our ancestors learned arithmetic, algebra, the 
(crude) truths of astronomy and formed an acquaintance 
with the classics. There were fine scholars among the 
Saracens, some of whom made their way to Europe and 
founded institutions of learning. A taste for knowledge 
was formed among the ignorant and illiterate and an 
impulse given to civilization and progress such as could 
have been brought about by no other cause. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CAPETIANS ( Concluded). — 987-1 328. 

Louis VI. — Louis YIL — Philijo IL — Louis VIII.— 

Louis IX. — Lhilij? Ill — LJiilij:) IV. — Louis X.— 

John I—Fhili2? V— Charles /F.— (1270-1328). 

THOSE were the days of chivalry. Let me quote from 
a writer an account of how a knight was made in 
the olden times: 

"From the early age of seven years the future knight 
was taken out of the hands of women and confided to the 
care of some valiant baron who set him an example of 
knightly virtues. Until he was fourteen he accompa- 
nied the lord and lady of the castle as page. He followed 
them to the chase and practiced all manner of manly and 
warlike exercises. These, with the example of some lord 
who was held up as a model of knighthood, the great 
exploits of arms and love which were related in the 
long winter evenings in the hall, and sometimes the trou- 
badour's songs of Charlemagne and Arthur, constituted 
the moral and intellectual education which the young man 
received. 

"At fifteen he became a squire. The squire accompa- 
nied the lord and lady on horseback, served the lord at 
table, or carried his lance and his various pieces of armor. 
The ideas of the period ennobled these domestic services. 

80 



Capetians. 81 

The initiation of the squire was consecrated by religious 
services. His physical, military, and moral education 
was continued by means of violent exercises. Covered 
with a heavy armor, he leaped ditches and scaled walls, 
and the legends of chivalry developed more and more in 
his mind the model of chivalrous courage and virtue. 
The precepts of the Christian religion were also deeply 
impressed upon the future knight, and imbued him with 
its principles. At seventeen the squire often went off on 
distant expeditions under a vow of accomplishing some 
feat of prowess before receiving the order of knighthood. 

" Finally, when he was twenty-one years old and 
seemed worthy on account of his bravery to be made a 
knight, he prepared himself for this initiation by sym- 
bolical ceremonies. The bath, a symbol of purity of 
body and mind, the watching of his arms through the 
night, the confession, the communion, preceded the recep- 
tion of the new knight. 

'' Dressed in garments of white linen, another symbol 
of moral purity, he was led to the altar by two tried 
knights. A priest said mass and blessed the sword. The 
lord who was to arm the new knight struck him with the 
blade of the sword, saying to him: ^ I dub thee, knight, 
in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.' 
He made him swear to consecrate his arms to the defense 
of the weak and the oppressed ; then he embraced him 
and girded on his sword. The two knights clothed the 
new knight with the different pieces of armor and fastened 
on. him his gilded spurs, the distinctive sign of the 
knightly dignity. The ceremony was often ended by a 

6 — £/hy Fratice. 



82 Young People's History of France. 

tournament, which was a test of skill in which the new 
knight took part." 

I must not forget to tell you that Philip I., who came 
to the throne of France in 1060, waged war for twelve 
years against William of Normandy, taking the side of 
the elder brother of William, who had rebelled against 
his father. Once, when a truce existed, because of Wil- 
liam's illness, Philip made a jest about the enormous size 
of William, who, like many other persons, was very sen- 
sitive to ridicule. He was so angered by the joke that 
he mounted his horse, called a large force around him, 
and started off in hot haste to lay waste Philip's domin- 
ions. He destroyed a great deal of property, but in 
riding through one of the villages that he had burned, 
his horse stepped upon some smouldering embers which 
caused him to make so violent a leap that William was 
badly injured and died a few days later (1087) at Rouen. 

The death of this great man was marked by distress- 
ing scenes. Everybody deserted him, and it was several 
days before his body was found stretched on the bare 
floor in the monastery of St. Gervais {zher-vai). The 
poor knight who discovered it caused it to be taken to 
Caen {kahn) to bury it in a church built by William. 
The services had scarcely begun when a man stopped 
them, claiming the ground as his, and it was not until he 
had been paid a sum of money that he would surrender 
enough space for the grave of the dead king. 

Louis VI. (The Fat), became king in 1108. He was a 
brave man who fought against Henry I. of England, and 
defeated him. He was leagued with the French feudal 



Capetians. 



8S 



lords, but the treaty of peace which was made left Henry 
in the possession of Normandy. 

Louis VII., son of Louis 
VI., succeeded his father 
as King in 1137. He 
married Eleanor of 
Aquitaine, who 
owned enormous 
estates in Wes- 
tern France, but 
unfortunately 
also owned the 
per of a spitfire 
accompanied t li e 
King on his expedi- 
tion to the Holy 
Land, but he be- 
came so disgusted 
with her conduct 
that he divorced 
her. Just before 
Louis VI.'s death 
he said to his son 
"Remember that 
the royal author- 
ity is a royal 
charge." I won- 
der whether this 
was the original 

of the remark statue of WilUam the Conqueror, at Falaise, 




84 Yoimg People's History of France. 

that you have heard in later times, " Public office is a 
public trust." 

King Louis YII. was so unspeakably saddened by the 
death of his second queen, Constance, in 1160, that it was 
not until the end of fifteen days that he rallied sufficiently 
to marry Alice, daughter of Theobald of Blois. She was 
a noted beauty, and in 1165 bore him a son. All his 
other children were daughters, and the king was so 
delighted that he called his child " God-given." This little 
boy was Philip Augustus, destined to raise the contest 
between England and France to national proportions. 
He was a precocious child, and instead of indulging in 
sports and play seemed absorbed in meditation over the 
tremendous responsibilities he was to assume in later 
years. When his father met the English king for con- 
ference under the elm at Gisors the prince was present 
and was filled with indignation by the cunning and double 
dealing of the foreign monarch, who completely outwitted 
the French king. Young Philip resolved that if he was 
spared to wear the crown he would make right this great 
wrong, and history records how well he kept his vow. 

Dying in 1180, Louis VH. was succeeded by his son 
Philip IL (Augustus), during whose reign the authority of 
the King became more generally accepted than at any time 
since that of Hugh Capet the founder of the line. This 
was mainly due to the ability of Philip, who joined Richard 
the Lion-Hearted in the Third Crusade, but quarreling 
with that ugly tempered warrior, Philip left him and 
returned to France. You have been told in the history 
of England of the base tact of Philip, who plotted with 



Capetians. 



85 



Richard's brother John to seize the former's dominions. 
He failed to secure them by that means, but in 1204 
gained the English provinces through the wickedness of 
John. Thus he added to 
his dominions Normandy. 
Maine, Anjou, Poitou and 
Lou vain, his sway extend- 
ing as far as the Pyrenees. 
He walled and paved Paris 
and several cities, encour- 
aged learning and greatly 
improved the army. Philip 
remained a friend of King 
John of England, until that 
vile monarch murdered his 
nephew Arthur, the rightful 
heir to the throne. 

The reign of Philip H. 
is memorable for the 
rise of a numerous sect 
of dissenters from the 

Catholic Church, called Philip Augustus at the Elm of Gisors. 

Albigenses {al-bi-gen'sis), so named from the region of 
Albigeois {ql-be-zliwali)^ the district in which they first 
appeared. There were several divisions among them, 
but their general belief was in the greatest simplicity of 
living, that the world was ruled by two spirits, one good 
and one evil, and these two spirits were ever at war in 
the heart of every person. They refused to believe in 
the Sacrifice of the Mass, which teaches that the bread 




86 Young People's History of France. 

and wine of the Communion become the real body and 
blood of Christ, after consecration by the priest. There 
were some, too, who disbelieved in the need of baptism, 
and even of marriage, and they condemned the worship of 
images as idolatrous and denied the necessity of private 
confession. 

In 1209, Pope Innocent III. caused a crusade to be 
preached against the Albigenses and excommunicated 
them and Count Eaymond, who was their supporter. 
Many of their towns were taken and dreadful massacres 
were committed. In the end, Paymond was obliged to 
submit to the authority of the Pope. 

The growing power of Philip alarmed his brother 
rulers, and the Emperor of Germany and other sovereigns 
united in the effort to crush him. A great battle Avas 
fought at Bouvines {hoo-veen') , a small village in Flanders, 
in 1214, when Philip won a decisive victory. The Em- 
peror was glad to flee to Germany and John to England. 

I have told you of the vast good Philip did for France, 
during his reign which lasted forty-three years. Upon 
his death in 1223, Louis YIII. (the Lion) came to the 
throne. Despite his name he was a feeble monarch, but 
the wise policy of his father it may be said carried the 
government along of itself. At the request of the Pope, 
anotlier campaign was undertaken against the Albigenses 
by Louis YIIL, who laid siege to Avignon ( ah-veen yon// 1 
but the siege was so prolonged that famine and disease 
caused the death of 20,000 of the besiegers, among whom 
was the King himself, who passed away in 1226, to be 
succeeded by his son, Louis IX. (Saint Louis). As he 




The Battle of Bou vines. 



87 



88 Young People's History of France. 

was only eleven years old, liis mother, a worthy and 
noble woman, acted as regent. He owed everything to 
his mother, Blanche, who, in the face of opposition, se- 
cured him on the throne, imprinted on his mind that 
sense of religion and delicacy of conscience, that honesty 
of purpose and self denial, that perception of what was 
due for liim and to him, which made Saint Louis first 
among kings. This ruler was so good, pious, brave and 
gentle in all he said and did, that he well earned the 
title of "Saint Louis" which his loving countrymen gave 
him. The brother of the King married a daughter of the 
Count of Toulouse and thus brought to an end the long 
and bloody wars with the Albigenses. 

In 1249, Louis engaged in a crusade against the Sul- 
tan of Egypt. Damietta, at one of the mouths of the 
Nile, was captured in June, but several months of delay 
brought back the courage of the Mamelukes, and they 
were ready for a fierce resistance at Mansourah, Avhen a 
badly managed attack was made upon that place. They 
formed living barricades of their slaves and fought with 
such desperation, that the French army was not only de- 
feated but most of the men killed or taken prisoners. 
Among the latter was Louis, whose conduct was so kingly 
that it won the respect of his enemies. They offered to 
^----^-- hr^ -^or $2,000,000 and his subjects eagerly paid 
■ •' - v. hard to find the coin in France, that it was 
v.rces^arj to melt the silver railings around the tomb of 
] Ucliard the Lion hearted at Rouen (riven or roo'en) and 
^ !*r th'^rn. into money. But the people were happy to 
welcomed the return of their revered king 




t-1 



O 



trj 



X 



o 



90 



Young People's History of France. 



with delight. His rule was so just, so conscientious and 
so kind to all that his people idolized him. He was a 
model Christian, and when in 1270, he believed it his 




The Living Barricades at Mansourah. 

duty to enter upon another crusade, no one was able to 
dissuade him. He landed in Africa with his army on the 
way to Palestine and laid siege to Tunis. A malignant 
sickness broke out among his troops and one of his sons 
died. Then the king was stricken. Feeling he was near 




Death of St. Louis at Tunis. 



91 



92 Young People's History of France. 

his end, he ordered his attendants to lay him on a bed of 
ashes. Then he folded his hands and passed away mur- 
muring: "I Avill enter thy house Lord: I will worship 
in thy holy tabernacle." 

The second son of Louis who was strong enough to 
resist the disease that carried off his father, was crowned 
as Philip III. the Hardy or the Bold. The Crusade 
proved a sad failure and Philip made honorable terms 
with the Moorish King (who released all the captives) and 
paid a large sum of forfeit money. 

Philip was lazy and fond of pleasure. Among his 
m.any favorites was a youth named Delabrosse (du-Ia-hros) , 
surgeon and barber, for the two callings were combined 
in the same person for a long time afterward. I have a 
strange story to tell you about this young man. Philip 
brought with him from Africa his little son, whose mother 
had died there. He was a delicate child and caused his 
father great anxiety. When the King married a second 
time, young Delabrosse was very jealous, for he saw he 
was no longer the first favorite of the monarch. Tlie 
little son soon afterward died, and Delabrosse declared 
that his stepmother had used poisonous drinks and sorcery 
to bring about his death. He wove such a cunning story 
that at last the King believed him, and caused his Queen 
to be cast into a loathsome dLmo:eon and condemned to 
die as a witch. 

One day, while she was awaiting death in its most 
dreadful form, a man came to the palace and asked to 
see the King on an important errand. When brought 
before the monarch, he placed a letter in his hands, 




The "Hisli Court of Montfaucon." 



93 



94 Young People's History of France. 

which he said had been given him by a dying man, with 
the urgent entreaty to deliver it to the King without an 
hour's unnecessary delay. This letter, which was properly 
signed and witnessed, was clear proof of the wickedness 
and treachery of Delabrosse, through a number of years, 
until he crowned all by his frightful accusations against 
the innocent Queen. Philip was pained beyond measure 
because of the injustice he had done, and lost no time in 
releasing the Queen and conducting her with all honor 
back to the palace. As for Delabrosse, he was condemned 
and hanged at Montfaucon [inoncj-fo-koncj\ the place near 
Paris for execution of public criminals. 

Charles of Anjou, who had lately gained possession 
of Sicily, made himself hated because of his tyranny 
and the excesses of his followers. Charles was the 
brother of the sainted Louis, and as different from him 
as darkness is from light. 

Because the real heir to the throne of Anjou was Con- 
radin, a grandson of the Emperor of Germany, Charles 
had him seized and beheaded. A Sicilian citizen who had 
been despoiled of his property by the same ruthless king, 
visited several courts of Europe in disguise and stirred up 
a flaming resentment against tho base ruler. The Greek 
Emperor, Pedro of Aragon (who was tho next heir to the 
dead Conradin), and John of Procida, the instigator of 
the business, sent a fleet to watch Sicily secretly, where 
the citizens were in league against the French people. 
On Monday afternoon, in Easter, March 30, 1282, while the 
bells were ringing to Vespers, the Sicilians rose, and at- 
tacking the French, killed every man, woman and child 



CapetiaiiS. 



95 



upon whom tliey could lay hands. One honest and good 
man was the only one spared. The tragedy, which is 
known in his- 
tory as the 
^^ Massacre of 
the Sicilian 
Yespers," re- 
sulted in the 
deaths of 
8,000 per- 
sons. Charles 
of Anjou was 
thus driven 
out of Sicily 
and died with 
chagrin and 
rage. Philip 
III. took up 
his cause, 
and, in mak- 
ing an unsuc- 
cessful invas- 
ion of Ara- 
gon, caught 
a fever from 
which he died 
in 1285. 

Philip IV. (The Fair), was seventeen years old when 
he became king. He prosecuted a war for seven years 
against Edward I. of England over the Duchy of Guienne, 




Conradin Throws Down His Gauntlet on the Scaffold. 



96 Young People's History of France. 

(glieen) but was obliged to relinquish his claim. He 
secured Flanders and ruled it so oppressively that the 
Flemings rose in rebellion and massacred 3,000 of the 
French. The king tried hard, but in vain, to subdue the 
Flemings, and died in 1314. The most important event 
of his reig:n Avas the creation of the ^' Third Estate " or 
Tiers Etat (tee-alrz ay-tali). Until his time, the only 
two recogrnized orders in France were the nobles and 
clergy. In 1302 Philip allowed the burghers, or common 
people, to send representatives to the ruling body known 
as the States-General. These representatives sat on the 
same terms in that body as the nobles and clergy, and 
thenceforward three estates were known in France : the 
nobles, the clergy and the people, or as they were called, 
the ^^ Third Estate." 

Pope Boniface YIII. treated the powerful Colonna 
family haughtily because they opposed his election to the 
papacy. He excommunicated them and incited the 
Princes of Germany to revolt against Albert of Austria. 
Finally the Pope issued a bull saying God had set him 
above kings and kingdoms. Philip caused this bull to be 
burned at Paris, and the Pope replied by laying the land 
under an interdict. Then Philip appealed to the general 
council and sent an army into Italy against the Pope. 
He was taken prisoner at Anagni (ah-nan-yee) by one of 
the officers who belonged to the Colonna family. The 
Pope was not harmed, although he remained defiant, and 
he died a short time afterward. 

Louis X. (The Headstrong) ^ who received the crown 
in 1314, issued an ordinance freeing the serfs within the 




Pope Boniface VIII. Defiant Under Insult. 
y—Mlis' France. 



97 



98 Young People's History of France. 

royal domains. Throughout his brief reign he was under 
the influence of his uncle, Charles, of Yalois [vol-ivah'), a 
base wretch, who turned the anger of the king against 
Marigny [mah-reen'ye), the former prime minister of 
Philip IV., and he was condemned and put to death on 
the atrocious charge of sorcery. The king died in 1316, 
and his brother, Philip, administered the government as 
regent. The infant son, John, who was the heir, having 
died, Philip V. (The Long), became king in 1317. 

Philip's right to the throne being questioned, he called 
the States-General together to decide the question. They 
not only confirmed his title but did more. His disputant 
was the daughter of Louis X., and the States-General 
issued a decree declaring all females incapable of inherit- 
ing the crown of France. Since this was said to be 
based on the code of the Salian Franks it was called the 
'' Salic Law." Philip's reign was marked by a horrible 
persecution of the Jews, many of whom were put to 
death in Touraine. A number of good laws were made, 
among them one rendering uniform the weights and 
measures, which until then had been a jumble. For the 
first time, letters of nobility were granted, thus securing 
to commerce and the arts of peace, that which had 
hitherto been given exclusively to the sword. Philip was 
a patron of learned men, but his health was bad and he 
died after a reign of only six years, his successor being 
Charles IV. (the Fair), who began his reign in 1322. He 
was the brother of Philip V., and received the crown be- 
cause Philip had left daughters but no sons. 

Little of moment occurred during the four years' 



Capetians. 99 

reign of Charles IV. The troubles of Edward II. in Eng- 
land induced Charles to invade Guienne. The wife of 
Edward was Isabella, sister of Charles, who urged the 
latter to seize Edward's rights in Guienne. Edward 
sent his son to do homage to Charles who kept him as a 
hostage and furnished Isabella with money and soldiers 
to overthrow her husband. King Edward died terribly 
in Berkeley Castle in 1327, and within the following 
year, Charles passed away. His two sons had died and 
since he left only a daughter, the Capetian line by the 
"Salic Law" had become extinct. 



CHAPTER YII. 

HOUSE OF YALOIS — 1328-1589. 

Philip VI.— John II.— Charles V.— Charles VI.— 

(1328-1422). 

YOU will notice that the line of French sovereigns 
now took another name, but it was really a con- 
tinuation of the Capetian dynasty which did not 
actually end until long after the French Revolution of 
1848. De Valois was the name of an estate m France 
belonging to Philip YL, cousin of the late King Charles 
IV., who, as I have just explained, died without leaving 
any sons and his family, therefore, were shut out by thc' 
" Salic Law" from the succession. 

LofC. 



100 



Young People's History of France. 




Seal of Kin<^ John of Bohemia, Allv 
of Philip VI. at Crecy. Showing Full 
Knightly Armor of the Period. 



You must bear another fact in mind. There had 
been continual trouble between England and France, the 
feeling going back as far as the Norman conquest. The 

French tried to wrench away 
the English possessions in 
France, and they form.ed alli- 
ances with Scotland, and laid 
waste many parts of the Eng- 
lish coast. The English King, 
Edward III., now claimed 
that the crown of France 
belong;ed to him, because his 
mother was sister to the 
dead Charles, which made Ed- 
ward the next in succession. 
To this the French replied that the Queen being shut out 
by the ^' Salic Law," had no rights to pass over to her son. 
The English people stood by Edward, however, in his 
claim, and since Philip had attacked the English posses- 
sions in Guienne, and was making ready to put down a 
revolt in Flanders, Avith which England had a profitable 
wool trade, Edward in 1337, declared war against France. 
This was the opening of a contest which lasted so long 
that it is known in history as the Hundred Years' War. 
The fighting went on for several years before either 
side gained any important advantage. But at Sluys 
(slois), the English were victorious in 1340, and six years 
later they gained a great victory at Crecy [cray'see), in 
northwestern France. This battle will always be memor- 
able because it waS' the first in which gunpowder was 



102 



Young People's History of France. 



used. The cannon employed were small affairs and those 
who fired them counted more on the fear they caused by 
their loud reports than upon what the missiles themselves 

would do. We 
have no account 
of anyone being 
struck by the can- 
non balls, but gun- 
powder which was 
the invention of 
Roger Bacon' of 
Oxford, had been 
used a long time 
before as an idle 
amusement. It is 
said that the re- 
ports of the big 
guns at Crecy ter- 
rified the horses 
and threw them 
into such confus- 
ion that many of 
the French riders 
were killed. 

The victory, 

Arbalists, or Cross-hows. Artillery Museum, Paris. Vm^^PVPr "Wfi «4 nnt 

due to the cannon but to the sturdy English archers. 
The 15,000 cross-bowmen on the French side were worn 
out by a march of twenty miles, and drenched by a violent 
storm, which so wet the strings of their heavy cross-bows, 




House of Yalois. 



103 



that they lengthened and became almost useless. The 
English bowmen had been resting all day and took good 
care to keep their strings dry. Thus, 
although the French greatly outnum- 
bered the English, they were at such 
disadvantage, that they were over- 
thrown. It was at Crecy, that the 
young son of the English King, known, 
because of the color of his armor, as the 
'^ Black Prince," performed such valiant 
deeds as to command the admiration 
of the veteran knights and make his 
name a terror to the enemy. 

Having won this great victory, Ed- 
ward .now advanced against Calais 
[kal'ay) the principal port on the chan- 
nel, and so situated as to be the door to 
France. The siege lasted nearly a year, 
and then the defenders would not have 
yielded had they not been on the verge 
of starvation. Edward was so angered 
because of the prolonged resistance, 
that he told the people they would be 
spared only on condition that six of the 
leading men, with halters round their 
necks should bring him the keys of the Effigy of Edwaidthe 

city. One of the wealthiest citizens in Black Prince, in Armor. 

Calais, Saint Pierre [scui i^ee-ar'), instantly volunteered, 
though he felt certain of being hanged. His example 
inspired five others and the strange procession went forth, 




104 



Young People's History of France. 



each man with a halter round his neck, and entered 
the English camp. When brought before the furious 
King, he ordered them to be put to death instantly, but 

Queen Philip pa, who 
had just joined him, 
fell on her knees and 
begged her husband 
so earnestly to spare 
their lives, that with 
ill-grace he consented 
and they were set 
free. This incident 
reminds us of Poca- 
hontas and Captain 
John Smith, nearly 
300 years later, in the 
gloomy Avoods of Vir- 
ginia, when the grim 
old chieftain Powhat- 
an, ordered his warri- 
ors to crush the skull 
of Captain Smith with 
their war-clubs. King 
Edward drove all the 
inhabitants of Calais 
out and peopled the city with his own subjects, and 
England retained possession of Calais for more than two 
hundred years. 

At this juncture, an awful pestilence, known as the 
"Black Death" came creeping over Europe from China, 




Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster Abbey. 



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106 



Young People's History of France. 



and so many thousands died that tlie people for the next 
two years had to stop fighting and give their energies^ to 
burying the dead. Many persons believed that the visita- 
tion was a punishment 
from heaven for the 



wickedness of the 
world. In the hope of 
staying divine wrath 
crowds marched over 
the streets and high- 
ways, clothed in sack- 
cloth, but with bare 
floo:g:ino: one 




Cross-bowmen on Horseback. 



shoulders, 



OO' 



another as they went. Probably nearly all deserved the 
flogging, but, if they had given more attention fo cleanli- 
ness and led well-regulated lives, greater good would have 
been accomplished. These persons were called Flagellants 
and the Court of Rome wisely ordered their absurd action 
stopped. 

But men who are made good by fear, do not stay so 
after the cause passes away. John II. (the Good) became 
King in 1350, and six years later the valiant Black Prince 
was desolating; the beart of France. He was attacked at 
Poitiers (almost _^>i6'i7e-a), by King John, with an army 
of 50,000, while that of the English was hardly one-fifth 
as numerous, but they were handled with such wonder- 
ful skill by the Black Prince, that a more decisive victory 
was won tban at Crecy. King John and his son Philip 
and many of the nobility were captured, while the Eng- 
lish army found they had twice as many prisoners as 




King John and His Son Philip ai Poitiers. 



107 



108 Young People's History of France. 

their own soldiers. The King and his son were taken to 
England where they were kindly treated and kept in 
honorable captivity for four years. 

As you may well suppose the crushing defeat filled 
the French peasants and common people with furious dis- 
gust. No longer could they pin their faith to the ability 
and bravery of the nobles. The Dauphin Charles, as the 
heir of the King was called, became regent of France. 
He was only nineteen at the time, and he ruled with 
great wisdom, but the country was in such turmoil and 
discontent, that a wiser than he could not have brought 
quiet and security. In order to ransom the prisoners in 
England, the people were taxed so frightfully that they 
rose in rebellion. A name of contempt given to the 
French peasants was Jacques Bonhomme [zhdk hon-om'), 
Jacques (James) is more common than any other nam.e 
among the peasants, and the one I have given meaning 
"Jimmy Goodfellow" was applied in ridicule to all the 
laboring classes. 

The revolt was called "The Jacquerie," and thousands 
took part in it. When such men are roused to frenzy, 
they become like so many raging beasts. They showed 
no mercy to anyone. Castles were burned, women and 
children slaughtered and men put to the torture ; but the 
trained soldiers fell upon the "Jacquerie" with fury and 
soon crushed the uprising. 

Finally in 1360, King Edward accepted proposals of 
peace. He bound himself to give up his claim to the 
French crown on condition that he was confirmed in the 
possession of Guienne, Calais and Ponthiey ypon-tee-uh!). 




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Young People's History of France. 

It was further agreed that the French people should pay 
a sum equal to f oO;000,000 in these days for the ransom 
of King John who was btill a prisoner in the Tower of 
London, and all this enormous sum was to be raised by a 
tax on the French peasantry. 

And now the condition of France became distressful 
beyond imagination. Men grew so desperate that they 
turned robbers, overran the country and plundered right 
and left, so that the miserable peasants often fled from 
their homes and hid themselves in caves and the gloomy 
depths of the woods. King John never saw France 
again, but died in London in 1364, and was succeeded by 
Charles Y. (the Wise). With the aid of the most famous 
French warrior of the age Du Guesclin {dil gd'Jdan), he 
drove the English out of every part of France except a 
few towns on the coast, for the peace did not last long. 

Charles Y. proved he was well named the Wise, for he 
ruled the country with great ability and wisdom. He 
had a fine fleet and fine armies, and through excellent 
management, the empty treasury was filled again. 
Although all books were written, for printing had not 
yet been thought of, he collected more than a thousand 
volumes and founded the Library of Paris. The peasants 
resumed the cultivation of land and began to raise cattle 
and sheep, but, sad to say, this happy state of things did 
not last. 

Pope Urban YL, who was elected toward the close of 
Charles Y.'s reign was of so violent temper and of such 
unjust ways, that many of those who helped to choose 
him were very sorry for it. His opponents declared his 



House of Yalois. 



] Li 



election illegal and chose another Pope, who -ns filled 
Clement Yl. He was established at Avignon on the 
banks of the Rhone, and France and several other coun- 




Coat of Mail, Gauntlets and Mailed Boot. 

tries gave him their allegiance, but England clung to the 
Pope of Rome. This dispute is known in history as the 
Schism of the West. 

Charles had been so successful in winning back his 
provinces that he now made the attempt to secure Brit- 



— J 



Young People's History of France. 

His pretext was that Duke John had made a 
league with the English, and before the Duke could get 
his answer ready, his estates were confiscated and Charles 
took possession. It was a most unjust act and the 
Bretons rose in rebellion and recalled the Duke. 

Now that mao^nificent warrior Du Guesclin, whom I 
told you about, was a Breton and felt he could not enter 
into such a fight. So he resigned his office of constable 
and made up his mind to retire to Spain. Before doing 
so, however, he joined his friends in attacking the little 
fortress of Randan. The siege had lasted but a short 
time, when Du Guesclin was seized with an illness which 
he felt was mortal. He asked that his sword should be 
brought to him, and when it was placed in his hand, he 
looked fondly at it and said : " This has helped me to 
kill a good many enemies of the King, but it has given 
me cruel wounds for his sake." He kissed the weapon 
with tears in his eyes, and handed it to one of his 
attendants. ^^ Remember," he added, '^ that wherever 
yoLi fight, the servants of the Church and the women and 
children are never your enemies." Then, after commend- 
ing his wife and brother to the care of the King, he 
closed his eves in death, and the governor of Randan 
laid the keys of the town on the breast of the dead hero. 
This was in 1380, and the same year the King died and 
was succeeded by his son Charles YL, who unfortunately 
at that time was a boy of twelve. 

Because of his extreme youth, the three uncles of the 
King began wrangling over the regency. These fine 
relatives were respectively the Dukes de Berri, Burgundy 




The French Go Down Before the English at Agincourt. 
3 — Mils' France. ^^^ 



People's History of France. 



^ fought like cats and dogs, the people 
iu»c IX. xo^^...^.. ^nd it is hard to think of a more fright- 
ful state of affairs. The leaders offered about all they 

had and a good deal 
they did not have to 
Henry Y., of Eng- 
land, on conditions 
that he Avould come 
over and help one to 
crush the other. 
The chance was too 
tempting for the 
p]nglish King to turn 
his back upon it. 
So he declared war 
against France and 
invaded the country, 
hastily patching up 
a peace between the 
supporters of the 
French King and the 
He besieged and captured Harfleur (ar- 
flur'~), and at Agincourt {ali-zlian-koor'), near the coast, 
between Calais and Crecy, in 1415, he met the French 
army which outnumbered his own six to one. 

The English had the advantage of position, and, by 
order of the King, each man firmly drove a strong stick, 
sharpened at both ends, into the ground in front of him. 
Most of the French soldiers were cavalry, and this arti- 
fice proved very destructive to the horses, hundreds of 




x:\ 



Charles VI. of France. 



Burgundians 




Isabelle of Bavnrin, Wife of King Charles VI. 
Showing costumes and headdresses of the time. 



115 



110 y People's History of France. 

which were impaled upon the sticks. Henry won a sig- 
nal victory, and among the numerous prisoners that he 
took back to France were the Dukes d' Orleans and de 
Bourbon. 

Charles VI. had become insane and never fully re- 
covered. Thus you will see that France having had good 
bad and indifferent rulers, was now in the hands of a 
crazy man, so it would seem that every sort was tried in 
that country, which in the course of time, tested every 
known form of government. 

King Henry returned in 1420, overran Normandy 
and captured Rouen, the capital. Shortly after the 
treaty of Troyes {tnoali) was signed between him, and 
the young Duke of Burgundy, by the terms of which 
Queen Isabelle disinherited her son Charles, the Dauphin, 
whom she hated, and gave her daughter Catharine to 
Henry for a wife. Moreover, it was agreed that when 
the insane King died^ the crown was to pass to Henry of 
En(2:land and his successors. It is hard to think of a 
better bargain for the English monarch, to whom were 
thus pledged the daughter of the French monarch and 
the sovereignity of France itself. 



CHAPTER YIII.' 

HOUSE OF YALOis {Continued) — 1328-1589. 

Charles VII.— Louis X/.— (1422-1483). 

THE history of no country contains more wonderful 
incidents than that of France, but I think you will 
agree with me that the story I am about to tell 
you is the most wonderful of them all. 

Charles YL, the msane king, died in 1422. Henry V. 
of England died before him, and soon after making the 
strange treaty by which he was promised the whole^ kmg- 
dom of France. In accordance with its terms, his mfant 
son was crowned as King of England and then taken to 
France and crowned there as king of that country. 

Charles VII., of France, was never accused of havmg 
too much spirit, but he would have been an inconceivable 
coward had he consented to the treaty by which his 
mother had given away his throne and kingdom. So 
fighting was renewed more fiercely than before, and the 
Encxlish with their Burgundian friends set out to bring 
Charles to' terms. Nearly all in the north of France 
were opposed to him and he retreated south of the Loire 
[Iwar) and occupied Bourges [hoorzh). 

. Charles was not vet twenty-one years old and was 
slothful by nature, besides which thousands of his coun- 
trymen hated him. His enemies were far more numerous 



117 



118 Young People's History of France. 

than his friends. In two battles, not very important of 
themselvesj he was defeated, and, though personally 
brave, he must have seen that his cause was well-nigh 
hopeless. He was selfish and fond of pleasure, and nearly 
all the men whom he made his favorites were unworthy 
of his confidence and proved the worst kind of advisers. 

About the only important city which remained faith- 
ful to Charles was Orleans [or-lay-on') , which commanded 
the whole valley of tiie Loire. The English army ad- 
vanced against it and felt absolutely certain that it would 
soon fall into their hands. Should that calamity occur, 
Charles would be compelled to retreat to the southern 
border of his country, where nothing less than a miracle 
would enable him to hold out. 

Fully understanding the importance of its capture, 
the Engrlish forces surrounded the walls and laid vio;orous 
siege to the city. The outer gate of the bridge and the 
outermost walls were captured despite the desperate 
defense of the Frenchmen. Gunpowder played an im- 
portant part and the stone balls of the cannon were 
splintered to fragments against the walls, into which here 
and there breaches began to show. But the French had 
guns also and did good execution among their enemies. 
Nevertheless, the advantage remained with the English, 
who had only to hold their position to compel the people 
to choose after a time between starvation and submission. 
It was no credit to the indolent King that during those 
trying days, instead of being at the head of his soldiers 
in Orleans, he and some of his favorites were at one of 
his castles, miles away, enjoying the soft spring weather. 



House of Yalois. 



119 




All this time, there was a humble peasant girl tending 
her father's sheep among one of the mountain districts 
of Lorraine. She was greatly distressed over the afflic- 
tions of her country 
and spent many hours 
night and day praying 
to heaven to save it 
from the calamity that 
threatened its life. And 
by and by, this good 
girl as she prayed and 
meditated, heard 
voices, and nothing 
could shake her belief 
that they were the 
voices of angels speak- 
ing to her. Heavenly music sounded in the air far 
above her head, the wonderful singing of spirits came to 
her enraptured ears, and visions beyond the power of 
words to picture broke upon her sight. And then the 
leading form among the angels said to her that she, the 
simple peasant maid, was appointed of heaven to deliver 
France. She was to win the victory that would turn 
back the iuvaders, who could be conquered in no other 
way. 

Joan of Arc (joii-darc), as she is known, was awed 
and tremblingly replied that she was so weak, so ignorant 
and of such humble birth that she could do nothing, 
where the bravest of the French officers had failed. But 
the heavenly form insisted, and, not daring to disobey, 



City Life in the Fifteenth Century. Character- 
istic ior Mauuers and Customs. 



120 Young People's History of France. 

Joan followed tlie directions given to her and accom- 
panied by her two brothers and a gentleman attached to 
the service of the Dauphin, she went to the castle where 
the Dauphin was dawdling away his time, and re23eated 
her amazing story to him. 

Charles was puzzled and at first did not know what 
to say or do; but he half suspected that what she told 
him was true and she was the appointed agent of heaven 
to save the sorely pressed country. Before she reached 
the castle, he dressed himself precisely like his courtiers 
and tellino; them to make no sioii that would reveal him, 
he stood among them when she came in. She glanced 
around, and picking out the Dauphin, went forward, knelt 
at his feet and made known her mission. She asked for 
a suit of armor for herself and the sword of a knig^ht/ 
who had lain a long time in the tomb, saying the angels 
had bidden her to use no other. 

Charles ordered that everything should be done as she 
wished, and so Joan, mounted on a white horse, clad in 
complete armor, with a white banner carried before her, 
led several thousand troops to Orleans. The garrison 
had heard of her, and when they caught sight of the 
maid in front of the soldiers, they broke into wild shouts 
of welcome. The English were terrified at first, declar- 
ing it was the devil that had come to the aid of the 
French, but the latter thought it was the opposite. 

The first attack by the peasant maid was upon the 
two towers guarding the bridge across the Loire, although 
the French officers opposed the assault which they de- 
clared was hopeless. But she insisted she was obeying 




Joan of Arc Wounded Before Orleans. 



121 



122 Young People's History of France. 

the orders given to her by the angels. When the assault 
had lasted for three hours, without any success, a retreat 
was sounded and the French began falling back. The 
maid seized a ladder, and quickly resting it against the 
walls, began climbing upward. Her corselet was 
pierced by an arrow and she fell unconscious into the 
ditch below. She narrowly escaped capture by the Eng- 
lish; but although suffering great pain from her wound, 
she seized her sword and banner again, and running up 
the ladder, and leaping upon the battlements, waved the 
standard and shouted to her soldiers to follow. Her ex- 
ample inspired them, and the English were dismayed, for 
their supply of powder and arrows was exhausted and 
their leader was shot while crossing the bridge. This 
gave the victory to the French, and that evening, Joan 
at the head of her soldiers entered the city, followed by 
the rejoicing people. Orleans was delivered within one 
week after her arrival before its walls. 

This miraculous victory was gained in 1429, and was 
followed by others, w^iich spread the fame of the Maid 
of Orleans and brought thousands to the standard of 
Charles, who, yielding to the urging of the girl, went to 
Rheims (reemz) in the north, where he was crowned King, 
the maid standing by his side before the high altar, and 
holding her white banner unfurled, while all the people 
looked on in awe and joy, 

I wish I could close the story of Joan of Arc, 
the Maid of Orleans at this point, for that which follows 
is unspeakably sad. She felt that her mission was 
ended, and, kneeling at the feet of the king, begged that 







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124 Young People's History of France. 

she now might go back to her father and mother and re- 
sume the humble work of tending their flocks. King 
Charles, however, was too selfish to allow her to do as 
she wished. Her presence animated the soldiers as 
nothing else could animate them, and he made her stay. 
But from this time forward she lost confidence in herself, 
for she could not feel assured that she was doing the will 
of heaven. Many of those who should have been her 
stanchest friends became jealous of her power. At the 
siege of Paris, she was badly wounded, and, being cow- 
ardly deserted by her troops, was taken prisoner while 
defending Compiegne [koin-jjen-yeJi). The officer com- 
manding the siege was John of Luxembourg, and that 
miserable wretch sold her to the English for an immense 
sum of money. She was thrown into a dungeon at 
Rouen, and then brought out, tried as a heretic and 
sorceress and burned to death at the stake. 

It was a horrible crime and nothing can equal the 
wickedness of all who had to do with it from the begin- 
ning, from the unutterably selfish Charles, who cared 
nothing for the noble maid when she could serve him no 
longer, to those who applied the torch and looked upon 
that form as she calmly suffered martyrdom and called 
out that once again she heard the voices of the angels 
who were bearing her soul away to eternal happiness. 
No wonder that when she was no more, one of the judges 
who had condemned her exclaimed: "Would that our 
souls were where hers is!" and the secretary of Henry 
VI. said as he walked sorrowfully away: "We are all 
lost; we have burned a saint." 




125 



126 Young People's History of France. 

On the spot in the public square where the Maid of 
Orleans suffered martyrdom, a statue stands which tells 
of the dreadful crime, and who can look upon it without 
a sigh for the fate of the noble girl who thus gave up 
her life for her country in the dim long ago ? 

It proved as the English King's secretary said, for 
the English continued to suffer defeat after defeat until 
all that they were able to retain was the single city of 
Calais. Charles VII. died in 1461 and was succeeded by 
Louis XL, another of the vile scoundrels who helped to 
curse France. He was an ingrate, continually plotting 
against his father, who grew to feel a mortal fear of him, 
and starved himself to death because he believed his son 
had placed poison in the food that was set before him. 

The ambition of Louis XL was to enlarge his 
authority by weakening the power of the great feudal 
vassals. He finally roused so much resistance that in 
1465 an alliance was formed against him called the 
'^ League of the Public Good," of which the leader was 
Charles the Bold, afterv>"ard Duke of Burgundy. Of 
course war followed, but Louis was defeated and forced 
to give the rights demanded by the nobles. But Louis 
did not yield the fight. As soon as he dared, he revoked 
these concessions, one after the other and finally brought 
his vassals to submission. 

When Charles Yll. died the period known as the 
Middle Ages ended. This in France is considered to have 
begun in the reign of Clovis. Constantinople was taken 
by the Turks in 1453, and Mohammed IL, who was the 
first to receive the title of Grand Seignior [seen-yor), 










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28 



Young 



People's History of France. 



made a triumphant entry into the city, but died in 1481, 
after a^long and victorious career, as he was about to lead 

an attack against the Knights of 
St. John. 

Returning to our account of the 
French King Louis XI., most of 
the reign was filled wuth plots and 
intrigues against his enemies, par- 
. ticularly Charles the Bold, Duke of 
Burgundy. The latter united with 
, ' u the Duke of Brittany, and took up 
^ - arms against Louis, inviting Ed- 
/, ward I v., of England, to join tliem. 
But Louis was shrewd and cunning 
and won over the Swiss. Upon 
learning that tlie citizens of Liege, 
which was subject to Burgundy, 
had rebelled against their tyran- 
nous lord, Louis sent an envoy to 
Liege, assuring them of help in 
their resistance to the Duke. 
Charles the Bold had challenged 
Louis to answer for his ag!:o!:ressions 
upon his territory. The King was advised to meet the 
Duke of Bm'gundy in person to settle their disputes. 
Beceiving a safe conduct from the Duke, the King went 
to Peronne. In the meantime, the evil seed sown by Louis 
in Liege had borne its fruit. Violence broke out and 
Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liege, was among those who 
were massacred. 




Siege of Neuss by Charles 
the Bold. Sliowing Three- 
barrelled Cannon on a Single 
GiTti Carriage. 




9—Llli8' France, 



130 



Young People's History of France. 



News of these outrages came to Charles while he was 
talking with Louis. He was so enraged that he could 
hardly restrain himself from taking the life of the King 

despite the written 




pledge he had given 
him of safe conduct. 
But the crafty King 
saved himself by 
signing a treaty by 
which he promised to 
resign all authority 
i in Burgundy and to 
give Champagne and 

ViewofPlessis-les-Tour, the Castle of Louis XI. "R-nip (hrPP^ as nnana- 

ges to his brother Charles, that is to say, lands for 
the support of his sons. Then Louis went off determined 
to break his pledge, like a true King, on the first 
opportunity. 

Louis devoted his great skill to Avinning over his 
opponents, for he was alarmed by the growing power of 
the Duke of Burgundy. The treacherous Cardinal Balue 
was the one at whose suggestion, Louis had visited the 
Duke and thus placed himself in his power. Louis 
learned that the cardinal was in the pay of the duke, and 
he now punished him by placing him in an iron cage, 
where he was kept for ten years. When he released him 
it w^as upon the request of Pope Sixtus TV. The cage 
was an invention of the cardinal himself and no doubt 
w^hen he was set free he felt satisfied that as a means of 
punishment it was a success. 




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132 Young People's History of France. 

The Duke of Burgundy was defeated in several bat- 
tles and Louis made proposals of peace to his allied foes, 
promising Edward IV. a large sum of money, if he 
would not fight him any more. Because these treaties 
regarded the riglits of commerce, they were called the 
Mercantile Treaties. Louis turned over his brave Swiss 
allies to Charles, who invaded their country, but only to 
meet defeat at Granson and Morat [mo-rah'), being com- 
pelled to flee in great haste from the field of the latter. 
A third battle was fought, in 1477, at Nanci, in which 
the Bur^undians v/ere attain defeated and this time 
Charles himself was killed and everybody was glad. 

Printing was in\'euted during the reign of Louis XL 
When the first printed book was presented toliiiu and the 
process explained, the King inquired what kind of ink 
was used. Upon being told, he exclaimed: ''It is the 
most perfect liquor man ever drank." 

As Louis grew old, he became a prey to superstition 
and remorse, for he had done a great deal of evil. He 
grew morbid over the fear of death and shut himself up 
in a gloomy castle which was nothing more than a vast 
tomb. He kept a large force of soldiers continually on 
guard night and day, and hardly ever allowed himself to 
be seen. Hundreds of innocent people passing near were 
strung up or drowned on suspicion that they had designs 
upon the life of the king, who probably inherited a taint 
of insanity from his father. 

He spent hours in prayer over the bones of saints and 
implored heaven to grant him long life. Little leaden 
images of the saints were carried in his hat and his cloth- 



House of YaloiSi 133 

ing was shabby and threadbare, though he had a magnifi- 
cent robe of velvet in which to receive great visitors. 
When death at last drew near, he grew more resigned 
and with greater calmness than would have been expected, 
he passed away in 1483. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOUSE OF VALOis — [Continued). — 1328-1589. 

Charles VIII. — Louis XII — Francis I — Henry II — 

(1483-1559.) 

FROM the accession of the young man, Charles YIII., 
to the close of the Valois line is about one hundred 
years. That comparatively brief period in the history of 
a people is marred with war, cruelty and murder, and the 
worst of it all was that the most horrible outrages were 
committed in the name of religion. Catholics and Pro- 
testants were guilty of atrocities that make one shudder 
and wonder how human beings could become transformed 
into such wild beasts, without a spark of mercy or kind- 
ness in their hearts. In these days, when everyone is 
left free in all of those countries to worship God as he 
thinks right, and no one is allowed to interfere with an- 
other's religious belief, it is hard to credit that such 
savage crimes were committed. It has been truly said 
that in the wars carried on in the name of religion, 
religion itself was destroyed. 



134 Young People's History of France. 

Mixed up in this woful work were France, England, 
Germany and Spain. There was strife, too, among the 
claimants to thrones and power ; jealousies raged ; 
treachery was abroad ; faith was broken ; the most solemn 
pledges violated ; hypocrisy everywhere and in short the 
devil seemed to be loosed. It would take many pages to tell 
the whole story and you would become confused and sick 
of the dreadful business. So, let us study just enough to 
form a clear idea of events. 

Charles VIII. had a brave heart in a sickly body. 
The nobles made war against him in the effort to regain 
the power they had lost under his father, but they failed. 
Then Charles, anxious to extend his dominions, set out to 
conquer Italy and started a war which lasted for about 
half a century after his death. He was quite successful 
in a way and entered Rome at the head of his victorious 
army. He was also crowned King of Naples and felt 
proud of the empty titles of King of Jerusalem and Em- 
peror of the East. While he accomplished little, he set 
on foot the French wars for foreign conquest which were 
afterward pushed with great success in different parts of 
the world. 

Now, since I have told you how debased and irreligious 
the times were, you must not form the idea that every- 
body forgot his duty to God and his fellow men, though 
I am sorry to say that almost everybody did so. There 
were some of the best men and women that ever 
lived, who were deeply grieved by the impiety around 
them, and did all they could by protest and prayer to 
check it. One such good man was a Dominican friar, 




Charles VIII. Enters Kome at the Head of His Army 



135 



136 



Young People's History of France. 



named Girolamo Savonarola, who lived in Florence. His 
soul was roused by the universal frivolity and wickedness, 
and instead of folding his hands and contenting himself 

with a skin o; God to make 
things better, he bravely set 
to wo]k to give all the help 
he could. He preached, 
pleaded and arguerl with the 
thoughtless ones, and by his 
example and eloquent warn- 
ings, won a great many to 
better and worthier lives. 
He did not hesitate to at- 
tack those in high places 
and to interfere in politics. 
No doubt his zeal some- 
times carried him too far, 
and, like many good men 
before and since, he was 
called upon to suffer mar- 
tyrdom, for in 1498, when 
he was less than fifty years 
old, he Avas strangled, his body cast into the flames and 
the ashes thrown into the river. 

A strange seriousness came upon Charles VIII. in his 
later years. His thoughts were turned t-) God, and he 
sought to be just and good. He established public 
audiences and patiently listened to all who came to hear 
him. especially the poor, and he was unkingly in his efforts 
to lessen, so far as possible, the burdens and sufferings of 
his subjects. 




Charles VIIT. Hoarirg the Causes 
of the Rich and Poor. 






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138 Young People's History of France. 

Probably every boy who reads tliese lines knows what 
it is to bump his head. The sensation is anything but 
pleasant, and it sometimes takes a good while to get over 
it, as I know from experience. Well, one day in 1498, 
when Charles had reigned only five years, he was passing 
through a dark passage in his castle and struck his head 
ao:ainst a beam wdth such force that he fell to the floor 
unconscious. He was carefully attended, but his skull 
was fractured and he died in a few hours. You will be 
interested to know that until that time white was the 
color of mourning in the royal family, but the widow of 
Charles put on black and the custom has continued ever 
since. 

Charles VIII. left no children and the crown passed to 
Duke Louis of Orleans, grandson of a brother of Charles 
YL, and thirty-six years old. He was a good-natured 
man and showed no resentment toward those who had 
been his enemies, saying with a smile, that what they did 
was against the Duke of Orleans and not against the 
King of France. He conquered Lombardy, and at Agna- 
dello, a village in North Italy, he won a great victory 
over the Venetians, in May, 1509, but in the end a Holy 
League was formed against him by the Pope, the Em- 
peror of Germany, the King of Spain, and Henry VIII. 
of England, all of whom were jealous of the growing 
power of France. Such a formidable union drove the 
French out of Italy, and all that they had gained ' was 
lost, except the inspiration which the French got from 
the noble buildings and works of art, and which resulted 
in what is known as the Renaissance, or new life^ in the 
French order of architecture. 




Louis XII. Wins the Buttle of Affnadello. 



139 



140 



Young People's History of France. 




Now I must tell in tliis place sometliing about a fam- 
ily that was one of the most infamous in all history — 
that of the Borgias. The head was Rodrigo, who w^as 

born in Spain in 1431. Al- 
though the father of four 
sons and a daughter, he suc- 
ceeded by intrigue in having 
himself elected pope in 1492. 
His son Caesar was a mon- 
ster of wickedness like him- 
self, and seems to have been 
guilty of all the dreadful 
crimes with which he has been 
charged. In 1503, the Pope 
and his son attempted to 
poison a rich cardinal, so as to 
obtain his wealth, but by mistake of the attendants, 
the two drank the wine intended for him. The Pope 
died almost instantly, but Borgia recovered and was 
killed some time afterward. 

The daughter, who was as wdcked as they, was accus- 
tomed to dance shamelessly before her father for the 
entertainment of guests, and was married three times. 
She was divorced from her first husband, her second was 
murdered by her brother CoBsar, and most of her life was 
spent in the pontifical palace, where she abandoned her- 
self to every species of crime and immorality. 

The genial nature of Louis XII. made him greatly 
beloved by his subjects, and when he died in 1515, he 
was universally regretted. His successor was Francis I., 



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142 



Young People's History of France. 



Duke of Angouleme {ang-go-lame) , twenty-one years old. 
He was chivalrous and anxious to distinguish himself by 
military exploits. He invaded Italy at the head of an 

army of 40,000 soldiers, 
and in the battle of Marig- 
nano {mah-reen-ijah'no) in 
1515, he totally defeated, 
the Swiss forces, who had 
been hired to fight for a 
cause in which they had 
nothing but a pecuniary in- 
ter est. Milan (mil' an or 
me -I on') surrendered and 
Francis was wise enough 
to form an alliance with the 
Swiss republic. 

Now it is that the other 
nations become mixed in the affairs of France. On 
the death of the Emperor of Germany, Charles of 
Spain became a successful candidate for the vacant 
throne. This angered France and gave rise to a 
series of wars which lasted more than twenty years, 
between him and his rival, who afterward became tbe 
illustrious Charles Y. of Germany. Each party tried to 
win the support of Henry VHI. of England. The scenes 
attending the meeting between Francis and Henry were 
so magnificent and marked by such splendor that the 
place was called the ^' Field of the Cloth of Gold." 
Through the intrigues of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIH. 
declared in favor of the Emperor of Germany. 




Seal of Francis I. 



House of Valois. 



143 



Francis invaded Italy, but was disastrously defeated 
at Pavia in 1525, his most distinguished generals killed 
and himself taken prisoner. He was held for more than 
a year, and only obtained his release 
by signing a very humiliating treaty, 
and, of course, as soon as he got 
back to France he broke his pledge 
and renewed the war, having formed 

alliance with Venice and the 



an 
Pope. 

Since I had to tell you so un- 
pleasant a history as that of the 
Borgias, it now gives me pleasure to 
relate that of one of- the purest, 
bravest and best knights that ever 
drew sword in defense of truth, 
justice and right. His full name 
was Pierre du Terrail, Seigneur de 
Bayard {haiyar)^ and he is always 
referred to as Bon Chevalier sans 
peiir et sans reproche, meaning 
" Good Knight without fear and 
reproach." When you hear the 
expression, which is often used, 
" Brave as "Bayard," the reference 
is to this remarkable man, and it is 
the hit^hest compliment that can be Coat of Mail of chevaiier 

. T ^ ^ Bayard. 

paid any one. 

He was born of an ancient and honorable French 
family in 1476, and at an early age displayed the courage, 





144 Young People's History of France. 

unconquerable resolution, military skill, virtue and lionor 
which made him a model knight in every respect. So 
wonderful were his daring and skill, that instead of wait- 
ing until he was twenty-one years old, 
he began his military career at the age 
of eighteen. The first battle in which 
he fought was that of Fornova in 1494 
on the side of Charles YIII. Two 
horses were killed under him and his 
feats of valor roused the admiration of 
all who witnessed them. lie threw his 
Medal of Francis I. j^^atchless energies into the campaigns 
of Louis XII., and the following marvelous achievement 
has been told of him and is true. 

When the French army were retreating. Bayard paused 
at the bridge over the Garigliano {ga-rig-ly-yano), and 
single-handed confronted 200 pursuing Spaniards, and 
that one knig;ht fous^ht and held back the whole force until 
the main body of the French army made good its retreat. 
In 1513 occurred the famous battle of the Spurs at Picardy, 
so called because the French cavalry fled in headlong 
haste before the English. It was the valor of Bayard 
that saved the French army from total disgrace, but he 
w^as compelled to surrender to an English knight though 
he was soon afterward exchang^ed. On other fields he 
displayed the same matchless daring. His military skill 
caused the leaders continually to seek his advice, but 
because Bayard disdained flattery and the arts of the 
courtier, he was never entrusted with any important com- 
mand. 



14D 



House of Valois. 
In 1524, at the passage of the Sesia, he received a 




Bayard, Single-handud, Defends the Bridge at Garigliano. 

mortal wound, but refused to be carried oE the fiekl, 

10 — E/hy France. 



146 



Young People's History of France, 




saying that in his last moments he would not turn his 
back on the enemy. Reclining at the foot of a tree, he 

encouraged his men, kissed the 
cross on his sword hilt, confessed 
himself to his esquire and closed 
his eyes in death. There have 
been attempts on the part of 
some persons to trace their de- 
scent from this noble and spot- 
less knight, but such persons for- 
get that the Chevalier Bayard 
was never married and of course 
left no descendants. 

Bourbon, commander of the 
German troops, marched against 
Eome with an army composed 
of many whose minds had been 
excited by the preaching of Mar- 
tin Luther, the foiuider of the 
Keformation, while others were 
ferocious and lawless bandits 
and adventurers. Bourbon was 
killed in the first assault, but 
Eome was taken, and for seven 
months was the scene of violence, 
pillage and every manner of 
crime. Pope Clement YII. was 
kept a prisoner and treated like a 
common felon. Because of this France and En Hand formed 



Armor of the Spanish Gonsalvo 
de Cordova. Worn at the Battle 
of Garigliano. 



an alliance, and Charles 



finding 



himself embarrassed by 



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148 



Young People's History of France. 




Scene at a Tournament, Sixteenth Century. 



the action of the German Protestants, and being threat- 
ened by the Turks, agreed to a treaty of peace with 
Francis, which was signed at Cambray in 1529. But the 

war was twice renewed, 
and Francis shocked 
Christendom by form- 
ing an alliance with 
the Turkish sultan. 
'• When the wolves at- 
tack the fold," he said, 
'^ we must seek the help 
of the dogs." He gained 
a splendid victory in 
1544 at Pa via, the scene of his former defeat, but the Ger- 
man Emperor and English King had formed an alliance 
and agreed to invade France, capture Paris and divide the 
French Dominions between them. Francis made a suc- 
cessful defense against them, and in 1546 succeeded in 
making j)eace with both. He died the next year, and 
was succeeded by Henry IF, twenty-eight years old. 

This monarch had little of the ability of his father 
and was slothful and devoted to pleasure. Hostilities 
soon breaking out between France and Charles Y., Henry 
formed an alliance with the great Protestant leader 
Maurice, Elector of Saxony, who immediately declared 
war against the German emperor as the enemy of civil 
and religious liberty in Germany. Charles was prudent 
enough to make a treaty with the Germans in 1562, by 
which they were guaranteed freedom of worship. Henry 
H. refused to join in the treaty and the imperial army 



House of Valois. 



149 



was defeated at Metz, where the French forces were 
commanded by Francis, Dnke of Guise (cjioeez). 

Before Henry began his reign he married Catharine 
de Medici (med'e-chee), 
a descendant of an il- 
lustrious family of the 
Florentine Republic, 
The founder of the 
house was Lorenzo de 
Medici, who was the 
father of Pope Leo X. 
and the uncle of Pope 
Clement VIL On ac- 
count of his many accomplishments and his patronage 
of the liberal arts, he was styled the Magnificent. 

At a tournament. King Henry became so interested 
in the exercises that he invited a Scottish captain of the 
guards to break a lance with him. In the encounter, the 
captain's lance was the one that broke, piercing through 
the king's casque to his cheek, under the eye. The king 
was carried senseless from the field, and ten days later 
died, to be succeeded by his son Francis, who was six- 
teen years of age. This was in 1559. 




Tournament. — Joust of Lances. 



CHAPTER X. 



HOUSE OF YALOis — [Concluded). — 1328-1589. 
Francis II.— Charles IX.— Henry ///.— (1559-1589.) 

WE must remember that it was during the reign of 
Charles VIII. that Christopher Cohimbus dis- 
covered America. During those weary years spent by 
him in tramping from one court of Europe to another, 
trying to interest the rulers and persuade 
them to fit out an expedition for him, he 
called upon the French King, who like 
many others made up his mind that the 
great Italian navigator was a crank and 
shook his head when asked to give him 
the help he so sorely needed. 

But a new world had been found, 
and though Spain and Portugal were 
Musquetin, i5o9. cligpntiug ovcr its posscssiou, Fraucis 
I. had been determined to have a share in the prize. 
" Show me," he said to those rulers, " the clause in Father 
Adam's will which divides America between you and 
leaves out France." The will couldn't be found and 
French explorers continued to visit the New World, and 
in time gained many important possessions, as you have 
learned in the history of the United States. 

150 




House of Yalois. 



151 



Francis II. was only sixteen years old and in weak 
health. He married Mary Stuart, slightly younger, who 
was the daughter of James Y. of Scotland. Francis was 
King only in name, the real 
rulers being his widowed 
mother Catharine de Medici, 
Francis, the Duke of Guise, 
and his brother Charles, 
Cardinal of Lorraine. Never 
was there a more infamous 
partnership, for all three 
were cunning, treacherous, 
ambitious, deceitful and 
thoroug:h believers in the 
policy that it is right to use 
any means at command to 
reach the end in view. 

The two men were ex- 
treme Catholics and the 
young Queen who cared 
only for gayety and pleas- 
ure, asked nothing except 
that they would let her 
have plenty of money 
for her indulgence, and they did so and ruled the 
kingdom. But the Bourbon family were jealous of them, 
and waited for the hour when they might strike them 
down. The Bourbon leaders were Antoine, King of 
Navarre and his brother Prince Conde. Navarre was a 
little kingdom on the borders of the Pyrenees, the queen 




Armor of a Captain of Lansquenets, 
or Soldiers of Fortune. 



152 Young People's History of France. 

of which Antoine married. They were champions of the 
Calvinist or Huguenot cause and that reminds me that 
you must wish to know what that was. 

Martin Luther, a German monk was a man of pro- 
found learning, who after long study, came to disbelieve 
in the supreme power of the Pope. He published a work 
in which he boldly maintained that the Church had fallen 
into bondage to the Pope and that the mission of Luther 
was to deliver it from its slavery. At first he meant to 
do this from wdthin the Church, but finding that impos- 
sible, he took an independent position and attacked the 
Catholic authorities wdth vis^or and coarseness. The 
Elector of Saxony, because of the heavy drains upon his 
province to meet the demands of Eome, was impatient 
and took the side of Luther, as did many prominent men. 
This forced the German Emperor to grant the Lutheran 
party freedom of worship in certain provinces until a 
general Church council should meet and settle matters. 
The further exercise of the privilege was forbidden by 
the Emperor Charles Y. The Lutheran party protested 
in 1529 against this tyrannical act, because of which 
they gained the name of Protestants. 

The Emperor was alarmed by the spread of the new 
faith and tried to stamp it out. The Reformation, how- 
ever, expanded and grew, but Catholicism firmly held its 
ground in the south of France and in Italy and Spain, 
where heretics were put to death in the most cruel man- 
ner. The Inquisition was the name given to a court 
established to inquire into offences against the established 
religion. It flourished most in Spain, but the first court 







Mary Sluart und Her Young Husband, Francis II. 
^ 153 



154 



Young People's History of France. 



was establislied in the south of France after the conquest 
of the Albigenses in the thirteenth century. It worked 
in secret and in some cases its agents inflicted frightful 

tortures upon those de- 
clare d guilty. More 
than once the fearful 
threat was carried out: 
'' I will have your body 
rolled out so thin that 
God's sun will shine 
through it ! " Break- 
ing on the wheel was 
another method . A 
man was bound se- 
curely to a wheel and 
his executioner pro- 
ceeded by means of 
blows with an iron rod 
to break all the bones 
that could be reached 
one after the other. 
The population in Central France w^as divided in their 
sentiments with the inevitable result that before lono; 
they began clawing at one another's throats, the jealousy 
being due as much to political as alleged religious causes. 
John Calvin was the leader of the reformation in France, 
and he went far beyond Luther in his claims for the new 
faith. The crafty Francis encouraged the- German Pro- 
testants in order to weaken that empire, but at home he 
showed no mercy to the reformers. The belief every- 




The Holy Inquisition. — Two of the Most 
Common Modes of Torture, 







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156 Young People's History of France. 

where in these days was that no man had a right to pro- 
fess a religion different from that of his sovereign, and 
when a person was called a heretic, it was only another 
name for traitor. The Catholics persecuted the Luther- 
ans in the south, and the Lutherans persecuted the Cath- 
olics in the north, and after a time persecuted one an- 
other, if they followed a different leader. The supporters 
of Calvin were also called Huguenots. The word was a 
nickname of reproach and is supposed to refer to com- 
rades bound together by oaths. 

The Calvinists or Huguenots who read their Bibles and 
tried to lead godly lives were horrified by the wicked- 
ness of the court. Many a time one of these stern men 
would stop on the street and denounce the frivolous 
nobles for their frivolity, while the nobles in turn would 
laugh and sneer at the Calvinist as a canting hypocrite. 

Thus you have the grand divisions or parties in 
France, and I have told you the names of the principal 
leaders; but many of the moderate Catholics shared the 
feelino^s of the Bourbons ao^ainst the Guises, for since the 
queen was Scotch, the queen mother Italian, and the 
Gruises belonged to Lorraine, France was really ruled by 
a little knot of foreigners. Another strong opponent of 
the Guises, was Admiral Coligny (ko-Iee7i'i/ee),Si Huguenot 
and an ardent supporter of the reformation. He was a 
brave and noble man, who had greatly distinguished him- 
self in many of the battles of his country. King Henry 
made him Admiral in 1552. On the death of that king, 
he returned to his estates, where he became a convert to 
the reformed faith. He and Prince Conde threw them- 



House of Yalois. 



157 



selves body and soul into the movement, and were sup- 
ported by the honest Calvinists and an influential body 
of the smaller nobility, who were prompted by the 
chance of obtaining spoils 
and booty. 

Now you can understand 
that the weak king was 
really the key to the prob- 
lem, for whichever party 
could control him would 
c^ain a decisive advantao;e. 
The enemies of the Guises 
formed a plot to seize the 
king and queen and kill 
or oihervvise dispose of the 
members of the govern- 
ment. Calvin utterly con- 
demned the scheme, and 
it being discovered by 
the Guises, they execu- 
ted scores of those implica- 
ted. The Prince of Conde 
was the real leader, but he covered up his tracks so well 
that it was impossible to convict him. Soon, afterward, 
in 1560, the king died, having reigned only a year and a 
half. His widow, Mary, the unfortunate Queen of Scots, 
bade a tearful adieu to the country she loved and went to 
Scotland, which she did not love though it was her native 
land. She was unfitted by nature for the throne which 
she ascended, and, as you have learned elsewhere, her 
imprisonment of eighteen years ended on the scaffold. 




Nobles and Calvinist. 



158 Young People's History of France. 

Having left no children the brother of Francis became 
heir to the crown in 1560. He is known as Charles IX., 
and at the death of the king was only eleven years old. 
The French law made the heir to the throne of legal age 
at fourteen. His mother, therefore, the crafty and 
unscrupulous Catharine de Medici, became the real ruler 
of the kingdom. She began by cunningly bringing about 
a reconciliation of the opposing parties, but her real pur- 
pose was to strengthen herself so as to strike the more 
fatally when the hour arrived. 

The euibers smouldered until the spring of 1562, 
when a small outbreak in Eastern France precipitated a 
horrible political and religious war, which with now and 
then a truce or breathing spell, drenched France in blood 
for thirty years. Catholics and Huguenots were equally 
fierce and violent, but the advantage was with the Hu- 
guenots because they had two such able leaders as Col- 
ligny and Conde. Among the two hundred cities and 
towns captured by them v\^ere Rouen, Lyons, Tours and 
Orleans. The Catholics held Paris; the king and reg- 
ular government were with them ; and the bigoted Philip 
IL, of Spain, who imprisoned his own son because he was 
a heretic, sent three thousand of his best troops to fight 
for the Catholics. No one even in those days could read 
of the atrocities committed by both sides without a 
shudder. 

At last after the Duke of Guise had been assassinated 
and the whole country was going to destruction and both 
sides beo!:an to show sis^ns of exhaustion, Catharine de 
Medici patched up a peace ; but it was only a sheathing 



House of Valois. 



159 



of swords and in her heart she was as malignant as ever. 
Fighting was soon renewed, and in one of the battles 
Conde was 
killed. The 
Huguenots 
were repeat- 
edly beaten, 
but they kept 
up the war- 
fare as reso- 
1 u t e I y as 
ever. Finally 
a treaty was 
made at St. 
Germain {san 
zlier-man') in 
1570, which 
gave the Pro- 
testants a 
fair degree of 
religious lib- 
e r t y, four 
fortified 
cities were 
turned over 
to them as 
places of ref" 

IT Catharine de Medici. 

uge and de- 
fense, and all employments were thrown open to those of 
their faith. 




160 Young People's History of France. 

Admiral Coligny, like the brave and sincere Cliristian 
that he was, urged his followers to keep this peace, 
though he himself was troubled by so many misgivings 
that he formed plans for removing the Huguenots to 
America or to Holland. Meanwhile, Charles had become 
old enough to receive the crown. Catharine did not like 
him, but preferred Charles' brother, the Duke of Anjou. 
This made the King jealous, and he was also tired of 
being led about by his mother. Both, however, agreed 
that they must do all they could to check the growing 
power of Spain, for it threatened the existence of 
France. 

King Charles thought out a brilliant scheme for secur- 
ing the support of the Huguenots. He compelled his 
sister' Marguerite, who was a Catholic like himself, to 
marry Henry of Navarre, the next most prominent 
Huguenot leader to Admiral Coligny. The marriage 
took place August 18, 1572, although Marguerite was 
bitterly opposed to it, and the union of a Catholic and 
heretic was denounced in the pulpits of Paris, as unholy. 

What angered and scared Catharine more than every- 
thing else was the discovery that the King was steadily 
falling under the influence of Coligny. She hired a pro- 
fessional assassin, of which, sad to say there were many 
in those days, to kill the Admiral, but he succeeded only 
in wounding him. The King was angered, and swore 
that the guilty ones should be traced out and punished. 
The HuQ^uenots beo^an armino; and the wicked Catharine 
became so frightened that she determined to commit one 
of the foulest crimes that stain the pages of history. 




Huguenot.s Destroving Sculptures on a Cathednil. 
11— Ellis' France. 161 



162 Young People's History of France. 

This plan was at one blow to destroy Coligny and all 
che leaders of the Huguenot party. The weak king, wdien 
the awful crime was proposed to him, repelled it with 
horror, but his mother persisted, and by exciting his jeal- 
ousy, finally won his consent. ''I agree to it," he said, 
'"'on the one condition that you do not leave a single 
Huguenot alive in France to reproach me." 

Before the first glimmer of light on Sunday morning, 
August 24, .1572, it being the solemn festival of St. Bar- 
tholomew, the bell of the church of St. German, opposite 
the palace of Louvre (Jouvr) began tolling. At once all 
the other church bells in Paris joined and those concerned 
knew that the tolling meant ''begin to kill the Hugue- 
nots!" 

The preparations were complete. The houses of the 
victims had been marked and the men who were to do 
the fearful deed wore white badges so as to recognize one 
another. Those who did not wear such badges were to 
be shown no mercy. 

The first house visited was Admiral Coligny's. He 
had been awakened by the clangor of the bells. He 
came down to the door in answer to the summons, and 
one of the assassins pointed his sword at him. 

''Are you the Admiral?" asked the ruffian. 

"lam," was^the firm rej)ly; ''do as you wish; you 
can only shorten my life by a few years." The sword 
was buried in the old hero's bosom, and he was flung in- 
to the street while yet alive. The Duke of Guise (he 
was the fourth duke of that name) exulted at the sight, 
and kicked the body, which was afterward hanged head 
downward. 



164 ^ Young People's History of France. 

The work of slaughter thus begun lasted for three 
days. It extended to the provinces, but in some of them 
the authorities refused to join in the massacre and pro- 
tected the Huguenots. No one knows how many were 
killed, but the number must have exceeded twenty 
thousand. 

Instead of subduing the Huguenots the carnival of 
death roused them to frenzy and they fought with such 
success that the king was compelled to grant them terms. 
Charles died in 1574, his deathbed, it is said, being a 
scene of dreadful agony and remorse for the crime he had 
committed and to which he had been urged by his mother. 
He was succeeded by his brother Henry III., who was a 
weak and absolutely worthless man, and his mother still 
lived to blight and curse everything with which she had 
to do. 

Henry began to persecute the Huguenots, but became 
alarmed by their resistance and made all the concessions 
they could ask and more than they expected. He gave 
important offices to Huguenots, making Henry, of Nav- 
arre, Governor of Guienne {ghe-yen), a province on the 
bay of Biscay, while the province of Picardy was pre- 
sented to the young prince of Conde. The greatest de- 
light of Henry HI. was to play with his monkeys, parrots 
and several little spaniel dogs of which he was extremely 
fond, though some have thought he did this to hide the 
treacherous schemes that were hatching in his evil brain. 

His liberality to the Huguenots caused his enemies to 
organize the Holy League, and the Duke of Guise began 
plotting for the throne. The formation of the League 




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166 Young People's History of France. 

caused a renewal of the strife, in whicli rather curiouslj^ 
there were three Henrys in the field — Henry HI., Henry, 
Duke of Guise, and Henry of Navarre. All claimed to be 
fighting for religion, when each was thinking only of him- 
self. Anarchy came again and those who brought it 
about quoted Scripture as their warrant for their crimes. 

Henry IH. wrote to the Duke of Guise forbidding him 
to come to Paris, but he w^ent, claiming that he had not 
received the King's letter. The populace despised the 
King and sided with the Dake. Henry slipped out of 
Paris, and, at a council at his palace of Blois, he was so 
desperate that he hired a party of men to assassinate the 
Duke. Kicking the corpse he exclaimed : '^ I have killed 
the reptile and now am King of France." The dead man 
who lay at the King's feet was he who sixteen years be- 
fore had served the corpse of Admiral Coligny in the 
same way. Soon after, the unspeakably wicked queen 
mother died. 

Henry HI. tried to make terms with both parties. The 
League scorned him, but Henry of NaVarre came to his 
help. The Huguenot and royal troops anited and ad- 
vanced against Paris, the heart of the League. A humble 
monk came meekly forth and asked permission to speak 
to the King. When admitted to his presence, he sud- 
denly drew a dagger from his clothing and stabbed him to 
death. Thus died Henry HL in 1589, and the House of 
Valois became extinct. 



CHAPTER XI. 

HOUSE OF BOUKBON. — 1589-1792. 
Henry IV.— Louis XIII.— Louis X/F.— (1589-1715). 

1HAYE told you that when Henry III. died, he left no 
one to inherit the throne. Now Henry of Navarre, who 
became Henry lY., was a descendant of the Duke of 
Bourbon, whose title was derived from a province in France 
of that name, the first duke having been created by Charles 
lY. in 1327. And that is the reason why the six kings 
who now began a rule lasting until the close of the eigh- 
teenth century, are said to belong to the House of Bourbon. 
I am sure that in studying the events which form a 
part of the history of those stirring days, you will be in- 
terested in learning about the life, customs, manners and 
peculiarities of the people themselves. When the House 
of Yalois ruled, there were no schools such as are common 
to-day. Teachers wandered about, giving instruction 
here and there, as they could collect pupils. The 
methods of teaching were very crude and the teachers 
ruled with a rod of iron, inflicting punishments such as 
would land a man in prison in these days. The most 
famous institution was the University of Paris, whose 
students came from all parts of Europe, but one of its 
graduates did not know enough to pass examination for 
the freshman class in the smallest American college in 
these times, 

167 



168 Young People's History of France. 

One of the favorite studies was astrology, by wliicli is 
meant the influence of the stars upon the events of life. 
It was an absurd '^science," founded on ignorance, for 
there could be nothing in it, though everybody believed 
in astrology. When you come across one of those frauds 
who claim to be fortune tellers, you will find that the 
man or woman makes a great pretense of consulting the 
stars to find out what is going to happen to you in the 
future; but no sensible person believes a word told by 
those humbugs or astrologers. 

The theatres gave representations of incidents from 
the Bible, or showed what may be termed the moralities 
of life. In 1385, on the occasion of the marriage of 
Charles YI. and Isabelle of Bavaria, a play was acted be- 
fore them called "The History of the Death of our 
Saviour." It had nearly a hundred characters and the 
performance lasted eight days. This was the origin of 
the Passioii Play, which is still performed in Bavaria 
and other places. Muskets called hand-cannons were first 
used at the sieo:e of Arras in 1414. You will remember 
that Charles YI. was insane a good deal of his time, but 
there were intervals when he regained his right mind. 
In order to amuse him, the present playing cards were 
invented, and they were marked just as they are to day. 
Perhaps, however, you do not know the meaning of the 
different spots. The clubs (clover-leaves), meant the 
peasantry ; the diamonds (tiles) the working people ; the 
spades (pike-heads), the nobles or military, and the hearts 
meant the churchmen. 

Under Louis XL printing was encouraged; a school of 



House of Bonrbori. 169 

medicine was founded in Paris, a rude sort of postal 
system established and an attempt made to light the 
streets of the city. The fashions of dress changed then 
as they have continually since that time. While Louis 
XI. was on the throne, the style of long loose garments, 
long trains and sleeves for the ladies gave way to broad 
borders of velvet, fur, or silk. Later the head dress be- 
came so enormous that it sometimes rose to a heio^ht of 
three feet above the crown. Picture a fine lady walking 
about capped by such a balloon. The hair dressers were 
paid large sums to fix up the heads of the ladies of the 
court and it cannot be said they did not earn their pay. 
Think, too, of the peaked shoes so long that a man of 
fashion could not walk until he had first tied the toes to 
his knee, or, as was more than once the case, to his 
girdle. I remember an Indian chief some years ago, 
whose hair was plaited and tied to the tail of his horse 
as he rode about, that being the most convenient way of 
managing his head gear, but surely he did not look half 
so ridiculous as the French and English dandies several 
hundred years ago. 

All the gentle folk were fond of perfumery .< If walk- 
ing on one side of the street you met one of them on the 
other side, you would know it, even if your eyes were 
shut, by the' sickening odor wafted to you. No greater 
fops lived than many of those who hung round the court 
and danced attendance on the ladies. 

The dwellings of the rich were furnished with splen- 
dor. There were fine linen, rich carpets and tapestry, and 
costly furniture. Some of the houses had their fronts 



170 Young People's History of France. 

adorned with projecting corner-posts on which were heau- 
tiful carvings of animals, angel heads, foliage, etc. Every 
castle had its extensive wine vault, cellar, laundry, bakery, 
fruitery and rooms for salt, glass, furs and tapestry, while 
buildings were set apart for servants and retainers. 

It seems strange that wolves should have prowled 
through the streets of Paris, often attacking and killing 
people, but they did, and many a time carried off and 
devoured children. Little was known of the science of 
medicine, and thousands died from pestilence and plagues 
which no doubt were caused by the unsanitary ways of 
living. 

Hunting and hawking were the chief amusements of 
the wealthy. The king had an immense establishment 
devoted to the chase, to which a large sum of money was 
appropriated every year. The hunting parties brought 
scores of gay people together, many of whom were ladies 
as eager and ardent as the men. Women painted their 
complexion and used patches as "beauty spots." It is 
said that Catharine de Medici introduced silk stockings, 
and at first only royalty wore gloves. Schools after a 
time began to appear, but most of the instruction was 
religious and the discipline always severe. The College 
of France, founded in 1530, gave instruction in Latin, 
Hebrew and Greek, because of which it was often called 
the College of Three Languages. 

Although Henry lY. had become king, he had to fight 
to maintain his position. The League declared in favor 
of his uncle, the Cardinal de Bourbon, but the moderate 
Catholics united with the Huguenots. Henry, in 1589, 



House of Bourbon. 171 

won the battle of Arques {ark), in Normandy and the 
foUowhig 3'ear he gained a still greater victory at Ivry 
(ee-vree'), nearly fifty miles west of Paris, and now called 
Anet. 

The army of the Leaguers was about 16,000, of whom 
one-fourth were cavalry ; the royalists had 8,000 infantry 
and 3,000 horsemen, armed only with swords and pistols. 
'^Keep your ranks in good order," said Henry to his men. 
^^ If you lose your ensigns, cornets or guides, the white 
plume on my helmet will be at the front and will lead 
you to honor and glory." 

" And in they burst, and on they rushed, while like a 
guiding star, 
Amidst the thickest carnage, blazed the helmet of 
Navarre." 

Two hours of desperate fighting was followed by the 
tumultous flight of the Leaguers and the road to Paris 
was open. The siege was pressed and the defenders held 
out even when suffering the pangs of starvation. At 
the end of four months, help reached them and the siege 
came to naught. The war went on with varying suc- 
cess. Henry was helped by the English troops under the 
Earl of Essex, and finally in 1593, changed his religion 
from Protestant to Catholic, but it required several years 
more to secure himself on the throne. A war with 
Philip of Spain was concluded by a treaty in 1598, in 
which year Henry granted the famous Edict of Nantes 
(nants), which gave entire liberty of conscience to the 
Huguenots and allowed them to hold offices of honor and 
pay. 



172 



Young People's History of France. 



The devastating war being over, the king turned his 
attention to improving the condition of his kingdom. 
Roads and canals were constructed and brought all parts 

of the country into com- 
munication. Traffic and 
commerce were so much 
encouraged that much 
wealth and prosperity fol- 
lowed. Great progress was 
made in m anuf actures, 
mining and indeed all 
branches of industry. Tax- 
ation was put as low as pos- 
sible and yet nearly all of 
the public debt was paid. 
In this work, the King was 
greatly aided by the able 
and honest Duke of Sully. 
One of the most pleas- 
ing pictures of Henry of 
Navarre represents him at 
home frolicking with his 
children. Once when the Austrian ambassador called to 
see him, he found the King on all fours with his little son, 
his toy flag held aloft, riding on his back. ^^Are you a 
father, sir?" asked the King, looking up at his caller. 
"Yes, sire." "Then Ave will finish our game," said the 
King, who devoted several minutes to the boisterous 
sport, while the amused visitor looked on. 

Henry, however, gave offense to the Catholics by de- 




Henry IV. Playing with His Children. 



House of Bourbon. 173 

daring in favor of the Protestant princes of Germany 
in their dispute with the emperor. A good many did 
not believe in his conversion to Catholicism, but he pre- 
pared to set out for the seat of war, when, as he was rid- 
ing in his carriage through the streets of Paris, he was 
stabbed to death (1610) by a half-crazy fanatic. This 
man, instead of being thanked as he expected to be for 
his crime, was tortured to death. The king was mourned 
by all, who forgot in admiring his ability and force of 
character the vices that marked his private life. 

Louis XIII. (the Just) was only nine years old when 
his father w^as assassinated, and his mother, Mary de 
Medici became regent. Sully, the brilliant and able min- 
ister under Henry IV., became so disgusted with the favor- 
itism shown by her to the Italian court attendants and by 
her foolish wilfulness, that he resigned and went to live on 
his estate. The foster sister of the queen-mother married 
an Italian named Concini {co7i-chee'-7ie), who was created 
Marshal of France, an honor hitherto only conferred upon 
those that had distinguished themselves in battle. Con- 
cini and other favorites showed their baseness by plotting 
to get the crown from the young King. Their infamous 
work stirred up the most bitter enmity, but the Queen 
seemed to fall wholly under the influence of Concini. 
Louis began to rebel, and, penetrating the base charac- 
ter of Concini, he had him assassinated as he was enter- 
ing the Louvre. His wife was put to death as a 
sorceress. All power was taken from the Queen who was 
exiled to Blois. She succeeded in escaping however, and 
reached Anglers where she was permitted to remain. 



174 Young People's History of France. 

At the assembly of tlie States- General in 1614 (whose 
petition to the Queen was so contemptuously treated that 
the slaying of the- Conde followed), one of the members, 
Richelieu (reesh'e-Jii), attracted attention by the display 
of extraordinary talents. Two years later he was made 
cirdinal, and in 1624 became the chiel adviser of the 
King. From that time forward until his death eighteen 
years afterward, he was the real king of France. 

Kichelieu loved order, power and stability. His first 
aim was to make the crown supreme. He believed in an 
unflinching honest despotism and displayed an impar- 
tiality such as the country had never seen before. The 
high in rank could no longer buy themselves off from 
punishment. The law that was meted out to the peasant 
was the same law to which the lord had to bow. 

Richelieu showed no mercy to swindling contractors. 
When detected, he gaA^e them the choice of restoring 
every penny or paying with their lives. An attempt to 
bribe him was a mortal insult, and quarrelsome nobles 
were made to understand that they must be very careful 
as to the circumstances under which they drew their 
swords. If any one dared to rebel, he was made quickly 
to feel the grip of the stern master, even when the 
offender was the brother of the king. 

All over France were great towering castles, which 
had often served for fortresses and where rebels again 
might intrench themselves and defy the King. The most 
formidable of these were torn down, while the offices in 
the army and navy that had made the holders really petty 
sovereigns were abolished. The provincial courts of 




Assassination of Marslml Conciui by Order of Louis XIIL 



176 Young People's History of France^ 

justice were revived, and in them the laboring man could 
bring suit against the lord who had oppressed him. The 
Huguenots were brought into submission and the Pro- 
testant power in France was crushed. 

One ambition of Richelieu was to humble the power 
of Austria, and to bring this about he took part in the 
Thirty Years War on the side of the Protestants against 
Spain and the empire. This war broke out in the Nether- 
lands in 1635, and, although the King's officers gained 
some advantages at first, they were defeated the follow- 
ing year, and the imperialists who invaded France pene- 
trated to within three days' march of the capital; but the 
energy of Richelieu triumphed over every obstacle and 
the French conquered Alsace and other territories. 

The unrelenting vigor and honesty of the cardinal 
raised up many enemies among the princes and nobles 
who plotted to destroy him, but he thwarted all their 
schemes and executed several of the leaders, among 
them being Cinq Mars, a young marquis only twenty-two 
years old, and his friend De Thou. He compelled every 
foreign power to respect France, gave the country a 
stability it had never known before, and as I have said, 
was the real King until his death in 1642, followed six 
months later by that of the King. Richelieu is often 
referred to as the '^ Red Cardinal," because of the color 
of his robe. He had as a companion a Capuchin monk, 
named Joseph. He was very cunning and able, and the 
" Grey Ca-rdinal " was held in almost as much awe and 
fear by the people as his master. 

The heir to the throne was Louis XIV., who was 




Cinq Mars and De Thou Going to Execution. 
12— Ellis' France. 



177 



178 Young People's History of France. 

hardly five years old. Since his nominal reign began at 
that time and lasted until 1715, it spanned the enormous 
period of seventy-two years, though in actual extent it 
was less than that of Queen Victoria who was full Queen 
from the first. 

The regency was intrusted to Anne of Austria, mother 
of the King, who selected as her prime minister Cardinal 
Mazarin, who had been trained under Richelieu. The 
Thirty Years War still went on, but the French were so 
uniformly successful that the Germans asked for peace, 
which was made in 1648, and the boundaries of France 
were fixed very much as they are to-day. 

In 1648 the people rose in rebellion against the unjust 
and oppressive taxation. This uprising is called the civil 
war of the Fronde, the word meaning '^slingers," and 
referred to the vagrant boys of Paris who fought with 
sliuQ^s. No doubt one cause of the revolt was that which 
was going on in England at that time against Charles I. 
The chief leader of the rebellion was Cardinal de Retz 
(rates), and it was nut until 1653, and after much diffi- 
culty, that it was put down. 

Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, and then Louis became 
his own minister. He showed remarkable sagacity and 
ability, and through the greatness of his military enter- 
prises, his splendid schemes for the internal improvement 
of his kingdom, his magnificent court ceremonial and his 
liberal patronage of literature, the arts and sciences, he 
won the title of Louis the Grand or the Great. His gov- 
ernment was an absolute despotism. His great helpers 
were Colbert (hole-bare') with the finances, and his prime 
minister Louvois (loo-vioah'). 




Riclielieu nnd P^allier Joseph. 
f' The Red and Grey Cardinals," 



179 



180 Young People's History of France. 

Louis seized Flanders and Franche Comte [fransJi 
hong' to) ^ but was checked in his career of conquest by 
the triple alliance of England, Holland and Sweden. The 
king's anger was specially turned against Holland. He 
bribed Charles H., of England to help him, secured the 
promise of neutrality from the other powers, and led his 
armies in person across the Rhine. 

Holland, although a powerful nation, was in great 
danger, for she was not united. One party was the no- 
bility, led by the Prince of Orange, afterward William 
HI., of England, and the other the merchants and 
burghers, but she had a powerful navy commanded by 
the two most famous admirals of Europe, Van Tromp 
and De Ruyter [ri'ter). At first the French were suc- 
cessful, and several of the Dutch provinces were occupied, 
but the tide soon turned in favor of the defenders. Am- 
sterdam was relieved of its besiegers by cutting the dikes 
and letting in the sea ; the allied fleets were destroyed by 
the Dutch admirals and the shrewd William of Orange 
broke up the English alliance with France and secured 
the aid of Austria and Germany ; but although con- 
fronted by allied Europe, Louis gained a number of suc- 
cesses and the Dutch fleets were defeated in the Mediter- 
ranean, De Ruyter being among the killed. But the com- 
bination against Louis became so powerful that he asked 
for peace and a treaty was concluded in 1678, which gave 
France no advantages. 

The queen died in 1683, and soon afterward the king 
secretly married Madame de Maintenon (inali-ta-nonc/)^ a 
woman who had long possessed great influence over him 



House of Bourborio 



181 



and which she kept to the end. It was through her per- 
suasions that he took the unwise step of revoking the 
Edict of Nan- 
tes in 1685. 
This was fol- 
lowed by a 
furious per- 
secution of 
the Hugue- 
nots, many 
of whom fled 
from the 
country, 
some settl- 
ing in Eng- 
land, some 
in Germauy 
and some in 
America. 
The revoca- 
tion of the 
Edict of Nan- 
tes was a ter- 
ribly destruc- 
tive blow to 
the prosper- 
ity of France, 

T . T ., • Admiral J)e Ruyter. 

which it IS 

believed lost fully 100,000 of her most industrious citi- 
zens, among whom were 9,000 sailors, 12,000 veteran 
soldiers, and 600 officers, besides $60,000,000 of money. 




182 Young People's History of France. 

You have learned in tlie history of England that when 
James II. was dethroned he took refuge at the French 
court. Louis supported his cause, because of which war 
was declared between England and France in 1689. The 
great powers of Europe combined against Louis who 
after seven years of the tremendous struggle was com- 
pelled to make the humiliating treaty of Ryswick {riz'ioik) 

in 1697. 

In 1701 came the senseless war of the Spanish Suc- 
cession. When Charles 11. of Spain died, Louis claimed 
the throne of Spain for his grandson Philip Y., while the 
German Emperor claimed it for his own son, afterward 
ICmperor Charles YL This caused an alliance between 
Germany and Holland against Louis, the alliance being 
joined by William of Orange, because Louis had recog- 
nized the son of James II. as King of England. The 
battle ground was Spain, Belgium, Germany and Italy. 
The French had to contend against the wonderful genius 
of Marlborough, who, it was said, never lost a battle or 
failed to take a fortress, and Prince Eugene. 

At Blenheim (blen'im), in 1704, Marlborough and 
Prince Eugene saved Austria which was exposed to attack, 
by uniting their forces in Bavaria and attacking the 
French army when it was in a bad position. The lines 
were easily broken by Marlborough, and one of the 
French commanders and an entire corps that had not 
been in the fight were captured. Within a month Ba- 
varia was conquered, the elector put to flight and the 
imperialists made their appearance again on the Rhine. 
The war was ended in 1713. by the treaty of Utrecht 




Prince Eugene of Savoy. 



183 



184 Yonng People's History of France. 

(u-tref) . Louis was obliged to surrender to England some 
of his possessions in America but he secured the recogni- 
tion of Philip Y. as King of Spain. 

One of the strangest mysteries of history is connected 
with the reign of Louis XIV. A state prisoner was first 
confined at Pignerol (peen-ye-erol) in 1679 5 two years 
later he was removed to Exilles ; then in 1687 to the 
island of St. Marguerite and finally in September, 1698, 
to the great Bastile prison where he died, November 19, 
1703. He wore at all times a black iron mask, which com- 
pletely hid his face. He was attended everywhere by 
M. de St. Mars, and, although the first move on the part 
of the prisoner to tell his name would have been followed 
by instant death, he was treated with the utmost courtesy. 
A great many attempts have been made to solve the 
identity of the Man with the Iron Mask. Ingenious 
writers seemed to have proved that he was fully half a 
dozen different persons, but of course, all except one of 
the writers, and probably he also, have been wron^. The 
most general belief at the present time is that the Man 
with the Iron Mask was Count Matthioli [mat-te-o-Je], 
mmister of the Duke of Mantua, and that, having broken 
faith wdth Louis XI Y., he was lured to the French frontier 
and arrested May 2, 1679. But the mystery will never 
be fully cleared up. 

The condition of France was dreadful, and the old 
King was in gloom. Everything seemed to have gone 
wrong with him. His army existed only in name, his 
navy consisted of a few old hulks, his treasury was 
empty, his son and grandson upon whom he had counted 



House of Bourbon. 185 

to continue his grandeur were dead ; Madame de Mainte- 
non liad left him^ so he folded his hands and on Septem- 
ber 1, 1515; closed his eyes in death. 



CHAPTER XII. 

HOUSE OF BOURBON {Continued). — 1589-1792. 
{Louis XF.— 1715-1774). 

HERE was another squalling infant only five years 
old that was heir to the crown of France. The 
once glorious realm was in the depths of poverty, 
with the peasantry barely able to coax enough from the 
ground to keep them from starving, and with a debt 
equal to $1,000,000,000 to-day crushing the nation to 
the very earth. 

The good-natured and worthless Duke of Orleans 
acted as regent during the minority of Louis XV. He 
formed an alliance with England and Holland and later 
one was formed on the part of England, Holland, Austria, 
and France to check Spain in her efforts to gain posses- 
sion of the crown of France. 

No government can get on without money, but the 
problem with the regent was how to obtain it when the 
people were so wretchedly poor. While puzzling his 
brain over the question, a Scotchman named John Law 
came forward (1715) with a scheme for lifting the gov- 



186 Young People's History of France. 

ernment out of tlie pit in which it was floundering. His 
plan was to open a bank connected with the State^ which 
was to use paper money in the place of gold and silver. 
Law gave out at the beginning that he had a capital of 
six million francs, equal to more than a million dollars. 
He cunningly started by sending out small notes which 
were paid with specie as soon as presented at the bank. 
This made the people believe that the institution was 
"solid," and hundreds of persons with a little capital at 
command, bought stock in the bank. Then the govern- 
ment gave it a charter as a royal bank, and ordered that 
its bills should be accepted in payment of taxes, custom 
house duties and all debts due the government. 

And now Law sprang one of the wildest schemes that 
ever set a nation crazy and plunged it into financial ruin. 
What appeared to be truthful reports said that the valley 
of the Mississippi River in America was crowded with 
rich mines of gold and silver, and Law organized the 
Mississippi Company which promised to make all who 
invested in it richer than they had ever dreamed of being. 
Then Law added an African and West Indian trading 
scheme, and at that the whole nation seemed to lose its 
wits. Crowds fought for the chance to invest their 
savings, and the scenes were such as would meet you in 
this country if the richest gold mines that ever existed 
were found in one of our large cities. Perhaps you can 
form some idea of the picture when told that a share 
which sold at first for $100 jumped up to $4,000, and 
there was a wild scramble to obtain the stock at that 
astounding figure. Law's house was in danger of being 



House of Bourbon. 187 

swept off its foundations by the nobles, bishops, trades- 
men, women and servants who were frantic to become 
rich at the hands of this magician. 

And then the crash came like a thunderbolt from a 
summer sky. Law seems really to have believed in his 
insane scheme, for he went down in the general ruin, and 
counted himself lucky that he was able to get out of 
France with his life. Of course, thousands were ruined 
by the " Mississippi Bubble," and the government saved 
itself by repudiating, that is, refusing to pay its obliga- 
tions, as it had done before and has done since. 

Louis XY. began ruling at the age of thirteen, which 
was in 1723. He was a genuine Bourbon of whom Na- 
poleon said '^ they never forgot and never learned any- 
thing." He believed in the divine right of kings, and was 
sure he knew it all. It followed, therefore, that no one had 
the right to decide how he should worship God, but must let 
this boy decide that all important matter for him. The 
Huguenots were again cruelly persecuted and he made 
war against the Emperor of Germany in order to compel 
him to replace the father-in-law of Louis on the throne 
of Poland. The dispute was settled by the Emperor 
giving the duchy of Lorraine to the King who had been 
driven out, with the pledge that it should fall to his 
daughter, the Queen of France, upon the death of her 
father. 

The death of the German emperor was followed by a 
formidable war over the succession to the throne of 
x\ustria. Now, observe what a piece of foolery the whole 
miserable business was. Before he died the emperor left 



188 Young People's History of France. 

Austria to his daughter Maria Theresa, but hardly had 
he closed his eyes, when no less than six claimants bobbed 
up and demanded a part or all of the kingdom. 

Maria Theresa had the documents to prove her right, 
but grim old Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, said 
she needed fewer papers and more fighting men. George 
11. of England headed an army to help the young Queen; 
France took the other side and sent troops as a guarantee 
of its good faith; others joined in until it looked as if 
all Europe was fighting. Beginning in 1741, the war 
which is knowai as the War of the Austrian Succession 
lasted seven years. George XL, as you have been told 
elsewhere, was the last English King to fight in person, 
and at Dettingen, a village in Bavaria, he administered a 
crushing defeat to the French. Then Louis took the 
field, but before he could do anything he fell sick, w^hich 
perhaps was a fortunate thing for his army. At Fon- 
tenoy, a village of Belgium, a great battle was fought 
April 30, 1745, between the allied English, Dutch and 
Hanoverians, commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, 
and the French under Marshal de Saxe. The latter were 
victorious and captured Brussels the next year and then 
conquered the Austrian Netherlands. Still other sac- 
cesses were gained, but the French met with defeat else- 
where. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 
1748. Maria Theresa was recognized as ruler of Austria, 
each party gave back the territory it had conquered, and 
all was as it might have been in the first place, except for 
such trifles as the losses of millions of money and thou- 
sands of lives. The War for the Austrian Succession 
illustrates the folly and wickedness of nearly all wars. 






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190 Young People's History of France. 

By tliis time England and France had become the 
great rivals in the New World. The English settlements 
were strewn along the Atlantic coast from Maine to 
Florida, but there was none at any distance from the sea. 
France occupied and owned Canada. Her explorers had 
been busy for years and she determined to take posses- 
sion of all the country from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico 
through the Mississippi Valley, thereby meaning the coun- 
try drained by that immense river and its tributaries. 
She had planted some sixty forts over that long extent, 
and her dream was to build a great empire in the heart 
of the American continent. 

But England had her eyes open. It would be more 
truthful to say that her colonies on the other side of the 
Atlantic were alert. When they obtained their grants or 
rights to lands from the English monarchs, the docu- 
ments said that those grants extended straight across the 
continent to the Pacific Ocean. It is true that no one 
imagined the Pacific was half so far off as proved to be 
the fact, but that made no difference. The French were 
trespassing upon land claimed by Virginia and other 
colonies, and they wouldn't stand it. Governor Dinwid- 
dle, of Virginia, sent a letter to the French commandant 
in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania, suggesting 
that the best way for him to keep out of trouble was to 
hurry and leave the country. The French officer replied 
that he meant to stay where he was, and, furthermore, he 
would hustle every Englishman back to where he 
belonged, if he dared to set foot on the soil, Avhich the 
Englishmen had the impudence to claim, though it 
clearly belonged to the good King of France. 



House of Bourbon. 



191 



Do you know who the young man was that carried 
the letter of the Vh^ginian governor, 500 miles through 
the wilderness 
and brought 
back the defi- 
ant reply of 
the French 
commandant ? 
I am so sure 
that his name 
is familiar to 
you that I shall 
not mention it. 

Then the 
fighting be- 
gan. At first 
it was favor- 
able to France, 
whose com- 
mander, Mont- 
calm, was one 
of the best mil- 
itary men that 
ever served 
her, and he 
gained many 

successes ; but when William Pitt, the great Commoner, 
became prime minister of England, he turned out the poor 
officers, put good ones in their places, sent more troops 
across the ocean, and from that time the English armies 




The Death of Wolfe. 



192 Young People's History of France. 

gained ground. The death struggle took place in front 
of Quebec, in the autumn of 1759. Montcalm, commander 
of the French and Wolfe, commander of the English, 
were both killed, but the victory was with the English. 
Four years later (1763), the treaty of Paris was signed 
by which France gave up all her possessions in America, 
except two little fishing islands off Newfoundland. 
Because of the momentous consequences which flowed 
from the conflict on the Plains of Abraham, in front of 
Quebec, that struggle is ranked as among the decisive 
battles of the world. 

Meanwhile, something similar took place in India. 
After a good deal of fighting, Lord Clive gained a decisive 
victory at Plassy in 1757, followed by the expulsion of 
the French from India, where England built up one of 
her grandest of empires, whose population is eight times 
as great as her own. 

This was not the sum of France's misfortunes. Maria 
Theresa was soured against Prussia, because she had to 
give up a part of her dominions to Frederick the Great, 
and she sought an alliance with France and other nations 
hoping to conquer Prussia and divide the kingdom 
among them. Louis was disinclined to join this alliance, 
for he had his hands full in America, but his favorite, 
Madame de Pompadour {'pom-2KtIi-doolir') whom he could 
refuse nothing, persuaded him to join her dear friend 
Maria Theresa. Frederick, seeing his danger, formed an 
alliance with England and the Seven Years' war formally 
opened. 

England did not give much help to Frederick the 



House of Bourbon. 



193 



Great, for that remarkable man did not need it. He was 
able to save his 

country, which -^^^^ 

in time rose to 
become one of 
the foremost 
Powers of Eu- 
rope. 

There was a 
strong feeling in 
France against 
the Jesuits. 
The Huguenots 
hated them for 
the part they 
had taken in the 
revocation of 
the Edict of 
Nantes, and in 
the frightful 
persecution of 
the Protestants 
that followed. 
Many Catholics 
distrusted them 
and Cardinal 
Kichelieu con- 
demned the 
pamphlets which they issued. Finally, in 1761, the 
Parliament of Paris by formal vote suppressed the order 

13 — Ellis^ Fi'ance. 




rre.lerick the Great. 



] 94 Young People's History of France. 

in France. Spain did the same, and in 1773, Pope Clem- 
ent XIV. solemnly abolished the society. 

At last in 1774, Louis, worn out with debauchery and 
every kind of sinful indulgence, and utterly detested by 
his people, with his country on the verge of anarchy and 
ruin, died. 



CHAPTER Xin. 

HOUSE OF BOURBON [Continued). — 1589-1792. 
Louis XF/.— (1774-1792). 

HAVE you ever seen a king or queen? If so, prob- 
ably the first thought that came to you was that 
the monarch was only an ordinary looking person, 
no more, no less, and no different, except for the high 
office he or she happened to hold, from the men and 
women whom you have been used to seeing all your life. 
Now, suppose you go with a policeman, some dark 
night, into the lowest and most wretched part of a great 
city. Let him haul out of the gutter a miserable, 
drunken woman in rags, foul in dress and speech, and 
drag her to the police station. There he may turn her 
over to the care of the matron, as they call the motherly 
woman in attendance. Let her have the poor wretch 
washed, cleaned, and, after she has had time to become 
sober, let the matron clothe her in silks and fine linen, 



House of Bourbon. 195 

deck her with costly jewels, place a crown on her head 
and set her on a throne. She would still be the same 
woman that was dragged from the slums, but as a queen 
and ruler of millions of human beings, far better and 
more worthy than she, she would be the equal in every 
respect of some of the queens who have sat on the 
thrones of England, France, Russia, Spain and other 
leading Powers of Christendom. 

Let us go next to the State prison and under charge 
of the keeper, pass along the gloomy corridors and peep 
into the different cells. Pausing in front of one, we peer 
through the little window or opening in the iron door, 
and see a prisoner whose face reminds us of a wild beast. 
His hair is matted, he is scowling, and his brutal features 
are contorted with the evil thoughts to which he has 
been a slave for years. You would shudder and flee if 
you met him on a lonely road, and are glad that the iron 
door is between you and him. 

"He is waiting to be taken out and hanged or put in 
the electric chair," whispers the attendant; "he deserves 
death a hundred times for the frightful crimes he has 
committed. He is a thief, a burglar, a gambler, a drunk- 
ard, a murderer and a liar; the only thing to do for the 
safety of society is to hustle such wretches out of the 
world as quickly as possible. We are well rid of them." 

Let two or three powerful men enter the cell and hold 
and bind the criminal so that he can do no harm ; let him 
be dragged out, his clothing changed for comely raiment 
and then his attendants can set a crown on his head, fling 
him upon a waiting throne and say : 



196 Young People's History of France. 

" Now govern the nation just as your depraved nature 
prompts you to govern." 

That man would be the equal in every respect of some 
of the kings who have sat on the thrones of England, 
France, Russia, Spain and other leading Powers in Chris- 
tendom. 

After we have left the prison, let us stop for a few 
minutes and look into the insane asylum. The heart is 
saddened by the sight of the unfortunate victims to one 
of the most mysterious maladies that afflict this poor 
human nature of ours. Perhaps in a padded cell, a wild, 
shrieking man is seen raging back and forth, with his 
hands tied behind his back to prevent his harming him- 
self. After we have stood for a ie^y minutes in pitying 
horror, suppose we are able to soothe his frenzy by gentle 
words, and he allows us to coax him out of his cell. 
While he is in this quiet mood, we clothe him in the robes 
of a monarch, set him on a throne, place a sceptre in his 
hand and shout: 

'^ Now shriek, rage, kill and destroy ! You are the 
ruler of millions and can do as you please and no one 
dare call you to account !' 

That man would be the equal m every respect of some 
of the kinoes who have sat on the thrones of England, 
France, Russia, Spain and other leading Powers in Chris- 
tendom. 

If w^e did not feel too sick at heart, we might look 
into some other cells. Perhaps one sad sight stoj)s us. It 
is that of a drooling idiot, with hanging jaw, slobbering 
lips, lack-lustre eyes, who laughs horribly, and has less 



House of Bourbon. 



19*7 



sense and wit than a lady's poodle. He does not know 
enough to be violent or to resist, and is led out as meekly 
as a lamb. He looks in giggling wonder at the fine 
clothes in which we array him, and wants to play with 




Louis XV. in His Cabinet. 

the glittering bauble which we try to set on his head, but 
he is persuaded to let it stay there, as we lead him to his 
throne and leave him to rule millions of intelligent men 
and women. 

That man would be the equal in every respect of some 
of the kings who have sat on the thrones of England, 
France, Russia, Spain and other leading Powers in Chris- 
tendom. 

Now mind I do not say this of all rulers of those 



l98 Young People's History of France. 

countries. Some of the best men and women that have 
ever lived have occupied their thrones, and to-day every 
one of those I have named is governed wisely and pat- 
riotically by him or her who holds the highest position in 
the realm; but in the case of Spain, we have to go back 
only to the revolution of 1868, to find a queen who de- 
served all the harsh words I have used. 

Compare the rotten monarchial system with that 
which has prevailed in our own country from the immor- 
tal Washington down to our present President. In that 
list of a quarter of a hundred have been a few who made 
mistakes, who have been criticised, who have not always 
remembered the dignity of their high office and who have 
occasionally been moved by resentment and anger in their 
acts; but how it stirs every American's heart with pride 
to know that each one of our Presidents, without excep- 
tion, was a patriot, that he was honest, intelligent, truth- 
ful, of superior intellect, and that the one all-controlling 
ambition and aim of his life was to serve his country in 
the best way he knew how. Our presidential line is the 
purest, most exalted and most illustrious that has ever 
swayed the destinies of any nation or any people. 

One of the many strange facts connected with the 
history of different countries is that, for generations and 
centuries, their inhabitants tamely submitted to such 
tyranny at the hands of those whom the accident of 
birth placed over them. Throughout those times, the 
"people were mighty, all-powerful, resistless. If they chose, 
they could have swept the inhuman wretches and their cor- 
rupt courts from their path, like so much chaff; but in- 



House of Bourbon. 



199 



stead they bowed their heads to the yoke, kissed the hand 
that smote them, and suffered and died, and with their 
dying breath mur- 
mured: "Long live 
the king! He can 
do no wrong!" 

It would be a 
hard task to explain 
why all this was as 
it was, but a few 
words may be said 
in explanation. The 
people were igno- 
rant and sodden of 
brain, because their 
situation had been 
growing worse for 
generations. They 
felt their wrongs, 
but seemed to think 
it was all the will of 
heaven and there 
was no help on 
earth for them. 

They might 
brood over their 
misery, but they did 
not know how to unite, to act effectively, nor did they have 
any of their own number capable of uniting and leading 
them. S05 as long as they could toil and keep body and 




>*-^ 



Louis XV. 



200 Young People's History of France. 

soul together, they bent their backs to the burden and 
meekly accepted the blows. 

But there is a limit to all human endurance. It is 
saidj you know, that the crushed worm w^ill turn, and 
wretched, ignorant and stupid as men may be, there is a 
point beyond which they cannot be driven. France had 
been steadily approaching that point and was now close 
upon it. 

You can hardly believe the condition of the French 
peasants and laborers under Louis XV. and his successor, 
Louis XVI. In the first place, it was the laboring classes 
who paid all the taxes, which the upper classes devoured 
in extravagance, gayety, luxurious living and debauchery. 
The clergy and nobility did not pay any taxes and lived 
on the fat of the land. The laborer had to give up one- 
half, three-fourths, and finally four-fifths of all he could 
scrape together to the tax gatherer, who was forever at 
his elbow. He would lift up the lid of the box in which 
the peasant kept his salt. 

"It's time you bought more salt," the master would say. 

"'But I'm in need of none; I have salted my meat 
and have enough left over for my family," would be the 
humble answer of the peasant. 

"Don't contradict me! You must buy a couple of 
bushels." 

"Very well; as you say; I will buy it." 

And buy it he would, paying the price which his mas- 
ter chose to place on it. The master would steal half of 
what he received and turn the other half over to the 
Crown. 



House of Bourbon. 



201 



Perhaps when the peasant and his wife and chil- 
dren were toiling with might and main on their little 







" Might makes right." — The Eobber Barons. 

patch of land, the noble living near in his castle would send 
word that he needed them to help gather his crops. It 



202 Young People's History of France. 

made no difference if the stoppage of work meant the 
ruin of his own tiny harvest, the peasant had to hurry off 
to the assistance of the noble, who might keep him toil- 
ing for weeks and then would not pay him a penny for 
his labor, nor give him a mouthful of food while so em- 
ployed. Enough honor for a dog simply to work for his 
master. 

Many a time the lazy pampered noble and his family 
would find that the croaking; of froors disturbed them at 
night and prevented sleep. Orders would be sent to the 
nearest peasants to keep the frogs still, and those poor 
people would have to tramp the swamps and bogs all 
night through, beating about them with sticks so as to 
scare the frogs into holding their dismal voices mute, 
that the noble and his family might snore in peace. 

All at once, some fine day, fifty or more mounted 
ladies and gentlemen and their pack of hounds would 
come rushing through the garden of a peasant, trampling 
into ruin all his vegetables and plants upon which he and 
his family depended for food. If he ventured to beg the 
party, when he saw them approaching, to spare his little 
all, one of the dandies would swirl his whip across his 
face, raising a bloody welt, and then all would laugh and 
the ladies would say that the fellow was served right for 
his impudence. 

One day the carriage of a nobleman was rattling 
through the streets of Paris. In rapidly turning a 
corner, a cry of agony rent the air. The driver had run 
over a small child, and so injured it that it lay bleeding 
and dying on the ground. Its frenzied mother ran out, 



House of Bourbon. 203 

caught it up in her arms, wailing with grief and vainly 
trying to bring it back to life. But it was dead beyond 
recall. 

Hearing the cry, the nobleman languidly raised his 
head, looked out and asked an explanation ol" the driver, 
who replied that he had just run over a child. 

"Ah, did any of its blood get on the paint?" 

The driver leaned over and scrutinized the glittering 
varnish of the equipage. 

"' No, sire ; the paint has not been soiled." 

" I was afraid it might have been stained ; drive on," 
commanded the noble with a siorh of relief, as he sank 
back on his downy seat. 

Similar incidents might be told without number, but 
you have learned enough to form an idea of the frightful 
condition of France, under Louis XV. Even that bloated 
wretch knew that this could not go on forever. He heard 
the mutterings in the heavens, and knew that the storm, 
would soon break and the cyclone rage ; but with a satanic 
smile he said to his woman partner in crime : '^ After us 
the deluge, but things will last until we are out of the 
way ; so why need we care ?" 

And they went on with their wickedness and did not 
care. One of the ladies of the court, when told that the 
peasants had no bread to eat, replied with the question : 

"Why then don't they eat cake ?" 

When one thinks of the unspeakable vileness and de- 
pravity of Louis XV., he must recall that day, when a 
pure, innocent little child, his proud family showed him 
to the thousands gathered outside the palace, who shouted 



204 



Young People's History of France ; 



and cheered him to the echo. Of him it could iDe truly 
said at the time that of such was the kingdom of heaven, 
while in his later years, it coiild be added with impressive 

truthfulness, " of such is 
hades composed." It is in- 
conceivable that human 
nature is capable of a more 
fearful descent than was 
presented in the case of 
this monarch. 

Such was the France 
inherited by Louis XVL, 
when he was twenty years 
old. The new King was 
fat, flabby, coarse and igno- 
rant, with bulging eyes, a 
retreating chin and a wab- 
bly walk. One of his chief 
delights was to mend locks 
and tinker with tools. 
Nature thus indicated the 
career for him and pity it 
is he could not have kept 
to it. He was a glutton, who stuffed himself like a pig. 
He ate so ravenously on his wedding night, that his 
friends were alarmed and mildly suggested that he should 
be more moderate. 

"Let me alone," replied the royal porker j "I can 
always sleep best on a big meal." 

A favorite trick of the King was, when he saw a 
laborer carrying a load which kept his hands employed, 




Louis XV. Shown to the People. 



House of Bourbon. 



205 



to slip up behind him and wiggle his fingers under the 
man's arm or neck, so as to make him drop the load. 
Then the King would throw 
back his head and guffaw, 
thinking it the finest fun in 
the world. 

The only thing that can 
be said in favor of Louis XYI. 
is that he was not a bad man 
at heart. He wished to rule 
for the good of his people, but 
he didn't know how. He was 
as unstable as water, hesita- 
ting when he ought to have 
acted promptly, stubborn 
when he should have yielded, 
bewildered when he should 
have been cool, and with an 
absolute genius for making 
blunders. To make the com- 
bination perfect, he required a 
gay, frivolous, beautiful wife, unable to understand the 
grave responsibilities of her position, and that is exactly 
what he had in Maria Antoinette (an-tivah-nef), daughter 
of Maria Theresa of Austria o 

Before proceeding with the history of events that 
directly concerned France, I must refer to those that 
afrected our own country. Shortly after Louis XVI. 
came to the throne, the American Revolution broke out. 
France may have felt' some sympathy for the Americans, 
but she yearned to strike a blow against her old enemy 




Maria Antoinette. 



206 Young People's History of France. 

England. We needed foreign help in our war for inde- 
pendence, and would not have been successful at that time 
without it. The American Congress never did a shrewder 
thing than when it sent Benjamin Franklin, the wit, 
philosopher and statesman to the French court at Ver- 
sailles (ver-sailz') to try to gain the support of France in 
our struggle. No foreign potentate could have been 
more ardently welcomed. His plain, homely dress, his 
long hair without any Avig, his quaint remarks in broken 
French, his good nature, his quick wit and his ever ready 
common sense, made him the favorite of King, Queen, 
nobles and ladies of the gay court. His picture was 
displayed in all the shops and Franklin hats and canes 
were seen everywhere. 

France hesitated, for she knew that open aid to the 
United States would bring on a war with England, and 
she waited until the Americans should gain some decisive 
advantage before taking so important a step. That came 
in the autumn of 1777, with the surrender of Burgoyne 
at Saratoga. A few months later the independence of 
the United States was recognized, and a treaty was signed 
with the United States, which was the first foreign one 
made by our government. Bankrupt as was France, she 
presented the Americans with a sum equal to nearly two 
million dollars, and in the course of the war, loaned them 
three millions more. From that time forward France was 
united with the United States in her war with England, 
though she did not give much real help until the final 
campaign at Yorktown, where Cornwallis was obliged to 
surrender to the allied fleets and armies of America and 
France. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HOUSE OF BOURBON {Continued). — 1589-1792. 
Louis XVL {1774:-n92.— Continued). 

THERE was a good deal of meaning in the remark 
that in the presence of Louis XIV. no one dared 
to speak; under Louis XV. the speaking had to be 
in whispers, but under Louis XVI. all spoke out loud. The 
American Revolution was a powerful cause in bringing 
about the revolt in France, for the officers and soldiers who 
came back had seen with their own eyes the wonderful suc- 
cess of democratic government. Another warning sign of 
the times was the general spirit of questioning, inquiry and 
doubt shown by the leading writers. They questioned 
the rights of government, of existing social institutions 
and of religion, as it manifested itself around them. All 
felt that trouble was coming. It was in the air. 

The king did not know how to begin the work of re- 
form, but he showed his good intentions by restoring the 
Parliaments which had been abolished by Louis XV. 
Then he placed the important department of finance in 
the hands of an eminent statesman and financier, Turgot 
{toor-goli'). This man set to work with honesty and 
vigor, but the difficulties were prodigious. The late king 
had a habit of collecting the taxes several years in ad- 

207 



208 Young People's History of France. 

vance, and there seemed to be no way of getting enough 
money to ran the government. 

The collection of customs had been carried to an ex- 
treme. The custom houses stood not only at the 
principal ■ seaports and along the foreign frontier, but 
fringed the boundaries of each province and county. So 
rigidly were these oppressive taxes enforced that a work- 
man could not cross the Rhone without paying duty on 
his scanty lunch, which he carried with him . The vexa- 
tious tax on salt remained. 

Now if there was any single thing self-evident to 
Turgot, it was that the nobles and clergy should be com- 
pelled to pay a fair share of the taxes. This was not 
only demanded by justice, but in no other way could the 
indispensable funds be secured. 

It did not require any explanation from Turgot for 
the kino; to see all this and he assured his minister of 
finance that he would stand by him. The humble parish 
priests sided with the people, and everything looked prom- 
ising. But the nobles and clergy raised a clamor against 
Turgot and his reforms, and the king was weak enough 
to dismiss him. This was a colossal blunder on the part 
of Louis. 

But money must be had and the king now called a 
wealthy Swiss banker named Necker to drag the country 
out of the mire. Necker' s wealth and wide credit enabled 
him to secure a number of large loans, and for a time 
matters went along swimmingly. Maria Antoinette had 
enough funds to indulge in frivolity and gaiety, and the 
king put on his apron and began filing keys and tinkering 



House of Bourbon. 



209 



locks, pausing now and then to gorge himself with food 
until he grunted with enjoyment. 

Meanwhile the country was drifting toward the roaring 
Niagara a short dis- 
tance below. Neck- 
er shov ed that the 
nobility were only 
a drag upon the 
country and of no 
help at all. This 
made the nobles 
mad J and they de- 
manded that the 
king should dismiss 
him, and again the 
miserable fool did 
as they wished. Be- 
wildered over the 
way matters were 
going, he sum- 
moned a meeting of 
the notables, as the 
court was called. 
They met and 
talked and talked 
and a d j ourned 
without doing any- 
thing. Then the dazed king, not knowing which way 
to turn, stopped tinkering his locks long enough to recall 
the clear-minded and honest Necker. 

14 — Ellis' France, 




Turgot Keceiving His Dismissal. 



210 



Young People's History of France. 



This man resolved, as the saying goes, to take the 
bull by the horns. He told the king that he must call a 
meeting of the States-General. Louis was startled and 

would not listen to it. That 
body of law makers had not 
met since 1614; they would be 
likely to take matters in their 
own hands, and bring up the 
king with a sharp turn. 

'' It must be done, sire," 
said Necker firmly; "no other 
course is open ; unless you con- 
sent I must be relieved of the 
duty to which you have sum- 
moned me." 

Reluctantly the king gave 
his assent. This was in 1789, 
and the States-General was 
■^®^^®^' summoned. 

You have learned in another place that the States- 
General was made up of the nobility, clergy and the 
representatives of the common people who formed what 
was called the Third Estate. Necker arranged that these 
should equal in number those that represented the other 
two branches. They really outnumbered them, for there 
were 291 clergy, 270 nobles and 584 members of the 
Third Estate, while 200 of the parish priests strongly 
sympathized and voted with them. 

Thus it would seem that a great advantage was in the 
hands of the common people from the start, but upon 




House of Bourbon. 



211 



assembling at Versailles, a quarrel arose as to how the 
vote should be taken, that is, whether the three orders 
should vote as separate bodies or together. Of course the 
Third Estate insist- 
ed upon the latter, 
and the others as 
vehemently op- 
posed, for the re- 
sult of the decision 
could not fail to be 
decisive. 

The deadlock 
lasted for several 
weeks, the repre- 
sentatives repeat- 
edly sending invi- 
tations to the other 
two bodies to join 
them, while they 
refused every such 
request. Finally 
the parish priests 
among the clergy 
withdrew, and 




Costumes of the Third Estate, the 
Clergy and the Nobles. 



crossing over, 

joined the Third 

Estate. The latter had lost all patience and now took 

a bold step. The members cast off the old name of 

States-General and ors^auized themselves as the National 

Assembly, that is, as the representatives of the whole 

nation. 



212 Young People's History of France. 

The king had gradually come under the influence of 
his wife, Maria Antoinette, and he showed fitful spells of 
firmness, or rather stubbornness, when it would have been 
vastly better had he been yielding. The nobles and 
clergy protested against the action of the Third Estate, 
and the king closed the hall against them. They met 
in the tennis court of the palace, and there bound them- 
selves by a solemn oath not to dissolve until they had 
furnished a written Constitution to France. Soon after- 
wards they gave themselves the name of the National 
Constituent Assembly. 

The king began to think there might be something 
in all this to which it was well for him to give heed. 
Acting on the advice of Necker, he requested the nobility 
and upper clergy to join the Third Estate. They did so, 
and, when the hall was again opened, there were seen 
for the first time in France, lords, bishops and commoners 
meeting on the same political footing. The queen was 
much displeased and on her suggestion a large body of 
troops was gathered in Versailles to overawe the 
Assembly. She secured the dismissal of Necker, who 
was glad enough to leave the country, and it was 
fortunate for him that he did so. 

There were members of the Assembly who afterward 
made names for themselves in history. One of them 
was Lafayette, who had been the friend of Washington, 
by whose side he fought in our Revolution. Another was 
the eloquent Mirabeau [mee-rah-holi'), whose impassioned 
appeals roused his listeners to frenzy (he died, however, 
soon afterward) , and another was Robespierre (rohes-pe-ar') 



House of Bourbon. 



213 



of whom 1 shall have something more to tell you later on. 

The king was frightened by the ominous incidents 
and especially by the bold utterances of the Assembly. 
Among the troops collected at 
Versailles were a good many 
Germans and Swiss, who were 
intensely hated by the people, 
because they did not think the 
king had the right to bring 
them into the country. The 
Frenchmen procured arms and 
organized a body of militia 
which they called the National 
Guard and which was placed 
under the command of Lafay- 
ette. 

The king, queen and all 
the members of the royal 
family were at Versailles 
whither the troops were sum- 
moned. There a new council was formed composed of 
supporters of the royal cause. Over their wine they 
pledged themselves to stand by the monarchs to the 
death, and if drunken enthusiasm could have won a 
cause theirs was already won. 

When ncAvs of this reached the popular party, they 
were thrown into irrestrainable rage. The French people 
are the most impulsive in the world, ready to glorify a 
man one day, and rend him to pieces the next. A young 
man named Camille Desmoulins [cah-mee da-moo-leng), 




Lafayette. 



214 Young People's History of France. 

leaped upon a bench under the trees of the gardens of 
the Palais Royal and poured forth a torrent of denunciation 
of the royal family and of appeal to the passions of his 
excited listeners. Reaching up to a branch over his head, 
he snatched ofr a sprig of green and stuck it in his hat 
as an emblem of liberty, for green is the chief color of 
nature. The trees were almost torn to fragments by the 
mob that they might deck their hats and caps. 

The most famous prison in all France was the Bastile, 
the building of which Avas begun in 1369 by Charles Y. 
and enlarged by his successors. Within its gloomy w^alls 
thousands of prisoners, many of whom were princes, 
nobles, and members of leading families, had pined in 
captivity until released by death. On its site to-day 
stands the "Column of July," erected in memory of the 
patriots of 1789 and 1830. A rumor having spread 
through Paris that the commander of the fortress and 
prison had received orders to hre on the people, they were 
thrown into ungovernable fury. Thousands shouted 
"Down with the Bastile! To the Bastile!" and they 
rushed thither at headlong speed, men, women and chil- 
dren, all made frantic by their flaming passion. 

The Bastile was defended by a feeble garrison, which, 
after a few hours' resistance, surrendered under the 
pledge that their lives should be spared. The mob mas- 
sacred every man of them. 

It was thought that the building was crowded with 
prisoners, but only seven were brought blinking into the 
sunlight. One of these had spent more than thirty years 
in the dungeon, and was an imbecile, who stared around 




Cainille Desmoulins in the Garden of the Palais Royal 



215 



216 Ycung People's History of France. 

in helpless bewilderment, and could form no idea of what 
his wild rescue meant. 

The rage against the Bastile found expression some 
hours later in an attack upon the massive walls, and it 
continued throughout the darkness, and never stopped 
until the structure was razed to its foundations. This 
was on the night of July 14, 1789. 

When the news was carried to the king at Versailles, 
he roused from sleep, rubbed his goggle eyes and said, 
"Why, this is a revolt." "^^ No, sire," replied his inform- 
ant, "it is a revolution." 

The destruction of the Bastile was the spark that 
kindled the flames which quickly spread to the provinces. 
The peasantry who had so long groveled in the depths of 
poverty, and meekly bowed their heads to cuffs and blows, 
sprang upright to their feet, a wild thirst in their blood 
which could be satisfied only by blood itself. Catching 
up whatever would serve them as weapons, they assailed 
the monasteries and castles, and with a savage delirium 
vented their pent up hate on those that had oppressed 
them. As they had received no mercy they showed none; 
they burned, murdered and sometimes tortured wherever 
they could find a victim. 

The nobility were terrified. At a meeting of the 
Constituent Assembly held on August 4, they offered to 
give up their feudal claims and privileges, but when this 
proposal was eagerly accepted, the nobility had no better 
sense than to demand that they should receive full 
pay for all they surrendered. Their magnificent "bluff" 
therefore came to naught. 



House of Bourbon. 



217 



vv niie the Assembly was engaged in preparing a Con- 
stitution, matters were fast approaching a crisis in Paris. 
Poor crops had made the people hungry, and, as is always 
the case, thousands of desper- 
ate tramps and characters 
flocked into the city, where 
they scented plunder and pill- 
age. To add to the excite- 
ment, tho king continued to 
play the fool. The gaunt, 
starving mobs in Paris learned 
that he had given a ban- 
quet to some officers, at 
which the colors of the Na- 
tional Guard had been tram- 
pled on. 

Hardly had the news 
reached the city, when a rab- 
ble, in which were several thou- 
sand ragged, desperate women 
— for the women were foremost among the most blood- 
thirsty from the beginning to the end — started on foot 
for Versailles, fourteen miles distant. A drenching rain 
did not add to their appearance nor improve their tigerish 
tempers. Nothing of account was done that day, and 
Lafayette followed rapidly with a strong force of the 
National Guard, for he knew trouble was ahead. 

The next morning the mob killed the Swiss guards, 
swept everything before them and burst into the palace. 
They yelled for the life of the queen, or the "Austrian" 




Louis XVI. 



218 Young People's History of France. 

as they called her, and when she showed licxooxr, she 
would have been rended to pieces but for Lafayette, who 
succeeded in saving her life. Bat she, the king, the 
dauphin and the rest of the family were compelled to go 
back to Paris with the rabble. In advance, were sent 
fifty cartloads of grain taken from the royal stores. The 
exulting multitude shouted as they trotted alongside the 
royal carriage and gibed the trembling occupants. 

" We shall feast now, for we've got the baker, the 
baker's wife and the baker's little boy ! " This wretched, 
dismal, pitiful journey of the royal family from Ver- 
sailles to Paris took place on October 6, 1789, and the 
people called it the " Joyous Entry." 

As might be expected, the nobility began running out 
of France while they had time to save themselves. They 
clustered on the German frontier, boasted of what they 
would do, and did nothing except to add to the rage 
of the revolutionists by threats to bring foreign aid to 
suppress them. The Constituent Assembly left Versailles 
and established themselves in Paris. 

France being threatened with foreign interference, 
had to equip armies of defense. To do this and avoid 
taxation, the crown lands Avere confiscated and then the 
possessions of the clergy, desjDite their remonstrances, 
were seized. This inconceivable wealth it is said 
comprised more than one-third of all the land in France, 
and was worth $400,000,000. Then the monasteries and 
nunneries were suppressed, and the election of the 
bishops and appointments placed in the hands of the 
people. On the basis of these possessions, which could 



House of Bourbon. 



219 



not be converted at once into cash, the Assembly began 
issuing money and kept the presses going until the bills 
sent forth called for more than $8,000,000,000. As a 




The "Joyous Entry." 

consequence the value of the paper money went down 
until it was worth absolutely nothing at all. 

On the first anniversary of the taking of the Bastile 
(July 14, 1790) the Constitution was formally ratified by 
the people. The Altar of the Country was raised in the 
Field of Mars, in Paris, and a hundred thousand repre- 



220 Young People's History of France. 

sentatives from all over France gathered to swear 
allegiance to the new government. There Louis XYI. 
took the oath to maintain the liberties of the people 
under the new Constitution. The queen, too, was present 
and held up the dauphin in her arms, to signify that he 
joined in the pledge. Just then the rain ceased falling, 
and the sun broke through the clouds and shone upon 
the royal family, as they stood beside the altar with up- 
lifted hands. The vast multitude broke into shouts of 
joy and accepted it as an omen of the good times coming, 
but never again was the sun to shine with promise on 
the heads of the king and queen and never again were 
the populace to break into cheers at sight of them. 



CHAPTER XV. 

HOUSE OF BOURBON (Concluded). — 1589-1792. 
Louis XVI. {1774c-1792.— [Concluded). 

THE more the revolutionists got the more they de- 
manded. Having seized the Church lands and 
placed the control of the clergy in the hands of the 
people, they now ordered the former to take an oath of 
allegiance to the Constitution. This was a bitter pill to 
swallow, for it was a declaration that everything that had 
been done by the Assembly was right and lawful. The 
Pope issued a warning that all of the French clergy who 
took the oath would be ex-communicated. The king 




The Bread Eiots. 
The "Women ou the Road to Versailles. 



221 



222 Young People's History of France. 

vetoed the measure, but was scared into upholding it, and 
in the end, about half the clergy did likewise. In the 
spring of 1791, Mirabeau died, which was a bad thing for 
France, for, though he was a revolutionist, he was wise 
and moderate, and could have done more than any other 
person to restrain the savage instincts of the mob. 

It was not long before the king and queen were 
brought to see what had been plain to their friends for a 
long time : the only way of saving their lives was to flee 
the country. The populace would not trust the king. 
He had sworn to support the Constitution and had 
appeared before the Assembly. He had done things 
ordered by that body, but nothing was clearer than that 
he hated every man in it, and would be rejoiced to cut 
off his head. There was no longer any doubt that some 
of the foreign Powers were preparing to interfere and 
forcibly replace him on the throne, with all his absolute 
privileges intact. Then woe betide these common people 
who had dared to raise their hands against the " divine 
right ! " 

The muttering thunder, the rumbling earthquake, 
warned the king, as I have said, that his only hope lay 
in flight. Not until beyond the borders of the country 
given over to madness, could he and his draw their breath 
in safety. Already thousands were clamoring for their 
lives, and thousands more were joining in the shrieks 
every day and night and hour. 

The night of June 20 was fixed upon for the flight of 
the royal family. The Count of Provence, eldest 
brother of the king, slipped forth in disguise late in- the 



House of Bourbon. 



223 



evening, and, accompanied by a Gascon gentleman, drove 
out of the city in a common cabriolet, which attracted no 
attention, and the count reached Brussels without any 
difficulty whatever. 

A carriage had been spe- 
cially arranged for the royal 
family large enough to carry 
six persons. Since it was 
liable to be noticed, the 
friends who had charge of 
the delicate business, advised 
that the party should separate 
and make their flight in two 
ordinary vehicles. Prudence 
commended this plan, but the 
queen refused. She had made 
as elaborate preparations as 
if those were the days of 
peace and splendor, and she 
was on her way to make 
a state call upon a sister queen. These preparations 
required days and weeks to complete, and there is no 
doubt that some of the hairdressers and waiting maids 
betrayed the secret. 

At eleven o'clock at night the royal children were 
awakened and dressed, the Dauphin as a girl and his 
Majesty as a valet, who answered to the name of Durand. 
There were delay and bother in starting, precious hours 
were frittered away, and daylight was at hand when the 
royal party, having at last got together, clattered away 




Mirabeau. 



224 



Young People's History of France. 



from the gates of Paris. The heavy vehicle lumbered 
along, with its outriders, and cumbered with enough 
baggage to make a load for a double team of horses. 

When it grew light in the east, 
the party were at Bondy, seven 
and a half miles away. Re- 
lays were ready, the change 
was made, and again the party 
were off, all in high spirits, 
which became higher with 
each mile placed behind them. 
The king was so free from fear 
that he was foolish enough to 
spend an hour at the wayside 
on one of his prodigious meals, 
during which it may be be- 
lieved he chuckled as he 
thought of the chagrin of those 
whom he had left in Paris, and 
over the greater chagrin that 
would come to them, with the resistless armies of his 
foreign friends bringing him back to his own. 

Naturally as the distance increased, the king grew 
bolder and more confident. When the carriage stopped 
to change horses, he poked his head out of the window 
and stared around. At the bottom of some of the hills^ 
he swung himself out and waddled, panting to the tojD. 
Sometimes the children frolicked at his side and no one 
can picture the scene without the deepest sympathy for 
the family. 




Louis XVII. (The Dauphin.) 




The Eoyal Family under Arrest at Varennes. 

yal captives were eight days returning, every village looking on at 
sorry sight ; and the procession threaded the streets of Pans amidst 



'' The ro 

tliB sorrv 

a multitude' and with covered heads." 

lo— Ellis' France. 



225 



226 Young People's History of France. 

Everything was bungled. The carriage was several 
hours late, the king and queen had been recognized, and 
the ringing of bells roused the people in advance. When, 
late at night the party arrived at Yarennes {ya-ren'), near 
Yerdun, the friends of the king had blundered worse 
than ever and no relay was ready. The royal family was 
recognized; bribes and threats were powerless, and the 
royal carriage was turned back and escorted to Paris, 
deep despair in tl:se hearts of all the occupants. The 
vehicle was driven slowly through the streets amid pro- 
found silence. Prominent placards contained the warn- 
ing: "Whoever applauds the king shall be flogged; who- 
ever insults him shall be hanged." 

The constituent Assembly having completed its work, 
dissolved the next day, and October 1, a new body call- 
ing itself the Legislative Assembly came together. The 
members were composed of three classes: the Constitu- 
tionalists or Conservatives, who were in favor of a 
limited monarchy; the Girondists {zliee-ron' dists) thus 
named because their founders came from the department 
of Gironde, who favored the establishment of a republic; 
and the Jacobins. The last were the violent Revolution- 
ists, who clamored for the overturning of all things and 
the killing; of everyone that had been identified with the 
former oppressive government. Their leaders were the 
terrible Robespierre, Danton and Marat (inar-ali'). 

The new Assembly ordered that the members of the 
clergy who refused to take the required oath should be 
forbidden to hold public services and should receive no 
pay, and all the nobles who took up arms against the 
government were condemned as traitors. 



House of Bourbon. 



227 



Austria, Prussia and Spain were preparing to send 
armies into France to replace Louis on the throne, and to 
restore the confiscated property to the Church. The lead- 
ing nation in this coalition 
was Austria, whose Emperor 
was a nephew of Maria Antoi- 
nette. No choice being left to 
Louis, he was compelled with 
a sinking heart to declare war 
against Austria, April 20,1792. 

There was no confidence 
between the soldiers and their 
leaders and the first move- 
ment resulted in defeat for the 
French. The news threw 
Paris into consternation for 
the time, and then into a 
rage which hastened the 
appalling events that were 
soon to follow. The Assembly 
ordered that the refractory priests should be banished, 
the Swiss body guard of the king disbanded, and a camp 
of twenty thousand provincial troops established for the 
defense of Paris. The king consented to the disband- 
ment of his body guard but vetoed the other measures, 
and when the ministry protested, he dismissed them from 
ofiice. 

Some weeks later a manifesto from the Duke of Bruns- 
wick, leader of the allied forces, reached Paris, in which 
the duke declared that he would hang every man as a 




Robespierre. 



228 Toimg People's History of France. 

traitor who supported the actions of the Assembly. The 
Jacobin leaders in the Assembly demanded that the king 
should be deposed. There was delay and hesitation, and' 
an immense mob rushed to attack the Tuileries {tioeeWee'). 
Louis and his family fled to the Assembly for protection. 
The mob assailed the palace, which was bravely defended 
by the Swiss guards. The king sent orders to the guard 
to stop firing and to come to the Assembly. Some did 
not understand the order and only a few started. The 
whole guard numbered about 800, and every one of them 
and 1200 nobles and gentlemen of the palace were mas- 
sacred by the frenzied rioters. 

Like famishing wolves, the insurgents were made 
more furious by the taste of blood. They marched to 
where the white-faced members of the Assembly were 
shivering together and demanded that the king should be 
deposed. The Assembly passed a decree August 10, 1792, 
temporarily suspending the king from office and calling 
the National Convention, for which the mob had clamored. 
The command of the National Guard was taken from 
Lafayette who saved his life by hasty flight from France. 
The king and royal family were sent as prisoners to the 
Temple, the ancient stronghold of the Knights Templars. 

The conduct of Louis during his fi\e months of cap- 
tivity, when he w^as allowed to have no communication 
with any one outside, was so calm and dignified as to 
command the respect and even the sympathy of his 
jailers. It may be said that never before did he conduct 
himself so like a king. 

A daring plan was formed for his rescue by his friends, 




Louis XVI. and the Mob in the Tuileries. 



229 



280 



Young People's JSistory of France. 



and it might have succeeded but for the witless queen, 

who could not keep the secret and chattered it to 

one of the jailers whom she fancied could be won over. 
The royal family had been in prison only a few weeks, 

when news came to Paris that 
the allied armies had entered 
France. "What shall be 
done?" shrieked the mob. 
Dan ton, Robespierre and Ma- 
rat shrieked back : " Strike 
terror to the hearts of the 
Royalists ! We will kill every 
political prisoner, man and 
woman in the city!" 

These prisoners were sev- 
eral thousand in number, and 
their massacre began on Sep- 
tember 2, 1792, and did not 
stop until when at the end 
of four days J there was none 
left to kill. 
On the 21st of September, the National Convention 

met, abolished royalty and declared France a republic. 

All titles of honor and respect were forbidden ; every 

man was "citizen" and every woman "citizeness." 

On the 3d of December the king was ordered to 

appear before the Convention. The proceedings and 

result may be thus summarized : 

1. Is Louis guilty of conspiracy against the public 

liberty and an attempt against the public safety ? The 

vote was unanimously in the affirmative. 




Danton. 




Execution of Louis XVI. 



231 



232 Young People's History of France. 

2. Shall he have an appeal to the people ? Out of 
745 voting, only 276 were in the affirmative. 

3. What penalty shall be inflicted? There were 387 
votes for death unconditionally; 338 for detention or 
death conditionally; 28 absent or not voting. 

4. Shall his execution be delayed ? There were 310 
in the affirmative and 380 in the negative. 

Then it was ordered that his execution should take 
place within twenty-four hours. 

On the 21st of January, 1793, Louis XVI., with a 
calmness, fortitude and resignation for which the world 
will always honor him, ascended the scaffold. Turning 
and looking down upon the sea of faces distorted with 
passion, he attempted to speak, but his voice was drowned 
by the roll of drums and then came the end. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE REPUBLIC (1792-1804). THE CONYEI^TION' 

(1792-1795). 

ROBESPIERRE, Danton, Marat and the furious 
leaders of the revolution thought they would scare 
ofE the interferring nations by their execution of 
Louis XYL, but the opposite effect was produced. Eng- 
land added her mighty strength to that of Holland, 
Spain, Austria and Prussia in the war to restore the 
monarchy, which action was not wholly disinterested on 
their part, for the uprising of the people ground to the 
earth for generations was a terrifying menace to all the 
other governments in Europe. 

France displayed tremendous energy. She answered 
the action of the different Powers with a bold declaration 
of war, and announced that wherever her armies went, 
they would proclaim their principles. So the prodigious 
contest was in one sense a strife between the p ople and or- 
ganized government everywhere. If France succeeded, 
there would be such an overturning of thrones and dy- 
nasties as the world had never seen. 

Despite the valor of the French soldiers, under skill- 
ful generals, the allied armies began to gain headway 
against them. They checked the French advance and 

233 



234 Young People's History of France. 

drove the troops out of Belgium. Soon after Dumouriez 
[du-'moo-ree-ay')y the ablest French general, disgusted with 
the atrocities of his followers, turned squarely about, and, 
failing to take his army with him, went over to the 
Austrians, ready to do all he could to help restore 
the monarchy. 

The news caused the wildest panic in Paris, but the 
appalling peril only roused the revolutionists to desper- 
ation. The blame for the disasters was charged against 
the Girondist policy, and the convention established a 
committee of Public Safety, composed of nine of the 
most violent radicals, who adopted a new constitution and 
assumed absolute control of the government. The con- 
vention had 200,000 men under arms and it was voted 
to raise this force to half a million. 

The air throbbed with suspicion. Robespierre, Marat 
and Danton suspected the Girondists of plotting with the 
allies, and the Girondists saw devastation, ruin and de- 
struction so long as the men named controlled the govern- 
ment and this horrible state of affairs produced what has 
been well named the Reig^n of Terror. 

The Girondists first attacked the radical leaders by 
chargirbg Marat with being unfaithful to the republic. 
That mons ,cr of hideous face, who hungered for the lives 
of the innocent as well as the guilty, smirked and grinned, 
for he knew he had the howling mob behind him. The 
oily Robespierre, as gentle and low-voiced as a woman, 
calmly watched proceedings and bided his time, for he 
knew, too, that the rabble were at his back. 

In this contest between the Girondists and Jacobin^ 



The Republic. — The Convention. 



235 



the weakness of the former surprised even their oppo* 
nents. Then the Jacobins took their turn. They wheeled 
about and fiercely denounced the Girondists and demanded 
their arrest. A panting mob 
broke into the chamber, white 
and screeching for blood. 
Thirty-one Girondists were ar- 
rested, and then began a reign 
of crime and murder such as 
the world never saw and it is 
to be prayed will never see 
again. 

In the wild tumult ten 
of the Girondists managed 
to escape from the hall, and, 
making their way to the prov- 
inces, started a counter revo- 
lution. They made good 
headway, and the cities of 
Lyon and Toulon declared in 
their favor. In a white heat of fury the Convention sent 
an army to Lyon, making sure that a guillotine was 
among its equipments. The city was powerless, and the 
dreadful implement of death was set to work, but, though 
it was kept going with the utmost diligence, the task was 
too enormous. So the prisoners were massed in the public 
square and mowed down with grapeshot. 

At Nantes, too, the guillotine proved too slow, and 
men, women and children were chained together on barges 
and pushed out into the Loire and sunk. In Nantes alone 




Dumouriez. 



236 



Young People's History of France. 



more than thirty thousand people were put to death. At 
La Yendee and elsewhere the same wholesale massacres 
took place. 

Marat chuckled like a fiend and rubbed his hands 

with glee when the awful 
news came to him. He had 
had a magnificent meal but 
he craved more. He spent 
his spare time in preparing 
long lists of victims for the 
guillotine. All he wanted was 
simply the name of some man 
or woman against whom an- 
other had whispered a sus- 
picion. He did not bother to 
find out whether the charges 
were inspired by spite ; he 
craved victims and could not 
get enough of them. 

On the ISthof July, 1793, 
word was brought to Marat 
that a young woman had called from one of the 
rebellious provinces with a list of traitors which she 
wished to place in his hands. Although Marat was in 
his bath, he was so delighted that he hastily flung on a 
few garments, and gave orders for her to be admitted. 
She came in, a beautiful and intelligent young woman, 
and he eagerly asked for the list. He had a stool at the 
side of his bath, with writing materials and he began 
taking down the names with ferocious joy as she called 
them off. 




Marat. 




Cbai-lotte Corda^ Assassinates Marat, 



237 



238 Young People's History of France. 

He was thus engaged, chuckling meanwhile over the 
punishment he would mete out to these traitors, when 
like a flash of lightning, the young woman sprang forward 
and buried a knife that she had concealed in her dress, 
into the bosom of the monster, who was barely able to 
gasp, " To me, my friend," when he was dead. 

Charlotte Corday, as was her name, remained calm 
and self possessed amid the wild confusion that immedi- 
ately followed. When placed on trial, she declared that 
she was a Republican and had always been one, but she 
had sought to end anarchy and had taken one life to save 
a hundred thousand. She was condemned and soon 
afterwards suffered death by the guillotme. A young man 
who begged the privilege of dying for her, was also 
executed on account of the offer, and the crowd hooted 
and yelled and danced with delight at the sight. 

The death of the leadmg wretch did not check the 
Reign of Terror, but added intensity to it. Satan was 
unloosed. The leaders insisted that only one safe course 
was open — that was to kill everyone who refused to 
take sides with them. Thereupon the Convention passed 
a law, ordering all persons '' suspected " of ill-will toward 
the republic to be imprisoned. In a short time, the 
prisons and jails were crowded to overflowing. The 
guillotine was set up in Paris and its hideous clicking 
was never silent day nor night. Everybody suspected 
everybody else. No man knew when some enemy would 
declare him a suspect ; the most intimate friends shunned 
each other and even members of the same family lost 
mutual faith, Anyone could make the charge and when 




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240 Young People's History of France. 

made it meant the guillotine. Often when a man or 
woman ran to the Committee to accuse some enemy, he 
or she would find that that enemy had got there a few 
minutes before and made his own charges. Then the 
belated one went under the guillotine and j^ei'haps the 
one who made the first charge was called back to keep 
the other company on the last journey. 

You remember the young man Camille Desmoulins, 
who harangued the crowd in the Palais Royal and stuck 
a green twig in his cap as a sign of liberty. Well, some- 
body made accusation against him, and despite his shrieks 
of innocence and his shouting of his name, he was hustled 
to the guillotine and beheaded. 

There was nothing vile, wicked, ferocious, blasphem- 
ous and brutal which the revolutionists did not do. They 
abolished the existing calendar, making the months, be- 
ginning with January as follows : Nivose, Pluviose, Ven- 
tose, Germinal, Floreal, Prairial, Messidor, Thermidor, 
Fructidor, Yendemiair^ <rumaire and Frimaire. 

The next thinr .oiished was the Christian Religion. 
Sunday was enddci and the churches closed. A shameless 
actress painted and bedizened, with the red cap of the 
commune on her head, was set up for public adoration 
upon the altar of Notre Dame. She was called the 
^' Goddess of Reason" and the times became the "Age 
of Reason." 

The wonder is that Maria Antoinette was spared so 
long. She had been expecting the summons for some 
time, when she was called before the Tribunal. As she 
kissed and bade good-bye to her children, she said: "I 






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241 



242 jfoung PeojDle's History of France. 

go to meet your father." Imprisonment and grief had 
told upon her, and as she came forth into the sunlight, 
she had aged many years within the past few months. 
When asked to plead in her own behalf, she refused and 
replied: ^^Iwas a queen and you took away my crown; 
I was a wife and you robbed me of my husband ; I was 
a mother and you robbed me of my children ; my blood 
alone remains ; take it and I only pray you that you do 
not make me suffer long." On the same day that she was 
sentenced to the guillotine — October 16, 1793 — she was 
executed. 

The most violent of the revolutionists were called 
Hebertists, after their founder, Jacques . Rene Hebert, 
leader of the communists. It was he and his party who 
set up the "Goddess of Reason" and worshipped her, 
and who abandoned themselves to the lowest practices of 
vice. Robespierre attacked Hebert and his friends as 
worse than tlie priests whom they had supplanted. 
Hebert started an insurrection in the Convention, but 
Robespierre outwitted him and Hebert and his comrades 
were arrested, tried and guillotined. Danton had become 
weary of the horrifying slaughter and showed signs of 
wishing to check it, though it was he who created the 
Revolutionary Tribunal which caused so much woe and 
death. The first sign of weakening on Danton's part 
was fatal, and he and his friends followed their thousands 
of victims to the guillotine. 

Robespierre was thus left at the head of affairs. His 
full name was Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre. 
He had hundreds of spies everywhere, and he showed no 




Maria Antoinette Leaving tlie Tribunal. 

Maria Antoinette was drawn to the place of execution, exposed to the insolent 
gaze of the populace, in a common cart, with her arms bound, in a 
prison dress, like the vilest criminal; but her calm die:nity which had 
abashed her judges a few hours before did not desert her. 

243 



244 Young People's History of France. 

mercy to man, woman or child against whom a word ol 
suspicion was breathed. Let us sum up the awful narra- 
tive by saying that careful estimates of the whole number 
of deaths during the French Revolution, due to massacre, 
civil war and the guillotine reach the appalling total of 
one million ! 

Finally the Convention turned upon Robespierre. He 
was accused of seeking his own interests by putting other 
leaders to death. He was tried and declared guilty, but 
managed to escape. Had he not been a coward, he might 
have rallied a strong party of supporters, but his heart 
failed him. When about to be taken again, he made an 
attempt at suicide, but the pistol which he used only 
broke his jaw. On the 28th of July, 1704 (10th Ther- 
midor), as he lay helpless and bleeding, '• One and Indi- 
visible " as he was called, no one offered him a drink of 
water. He was hurried to the scaffold and he too per- 
ished by the guillotine. 

A reaction now set in and France took time to 
breathe. The guillotine was allowed to rest and tl^e 
prisons were opened. Ten thousand were set free in 
Paris alone. The Convention assumed the powers of the 
Commune of Paris and the Jacobin Club was closed. 
The armies of the Republic defeated the English and 
Dutch early in 1795, and later in the same year, Belgium 
was declared a part of the French Republic. The com- 
mittee appointed by the Convention to draw up a new 
constitution did so in the summer of 1795, and the gov- 
ernment was placed in the hands of five directors, from 
which fact it received the name of the Directory. 



The Republic. — Tke Convention. 



245 



Madame Roland, wife of M. Roland, a Girondist leader 
and Minister of the Interior from March, 1792, to Janu- 
ary, 1793, was one of the most extra-ordinary women of 




Robespierre Made an Attempt at Suicide. 

her time. Remarkably beautiful and possessed of a bril- 
liant mind, she was scarcely less influential than her hus- 
band on the side of constitutional liberty. He saved his 
life by fleeing from Paris, May 31, 1793, but she was 
arrested on the same night, without the shadow of reason, 



246 Young People's History of France. 

and imprisoned. Released on June 24, she was immedi- 
ately rearrested and thrown again into prison. She spent 
the time in study and the composition of her political 
Memories. She was condemned, and on November 9, 
guillotined, amid the execrations of a crazy mob. A more 
dauntless spirit never lived. Standing at the foot of the 
statue of Liberty, Avhere the scaffold was erected, she 
apostrophized it, '^ Liberty what crimes are committed 
in thy name ! " 



CHAPTER XVH. 
THE KEPUBLic {continuecl) 1792-1804. — 

THE DIRECTOEY (1795-1799). 

THE creation of the forms of government in France 
known as the Convention and the Directory brought 
forward the most wonderful military genius of 
modern times, and the history of the country for more 
than twenty years following the dethronement and execu- 
tion of Louis XVI. is mainly the history of the doings 
and achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

The founder of this remarkable house was Carlo Buona- 
parte (as the name was originally)^ a lawyer of honorable 
descent, born at Ajaccio (ali-yaht'-clio) in the island of 
Corsica, in 1 746. His sons were Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, 
Louis Napoleon and Jerome. Louis was the father of 
Charles Louis Napoleon, who became the head of the 
government of France in 1852. 



The Republic. — The Directory. 



247 



Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio on August 1 6, 
1769. He showed so marked a taste for military life that 
at the age of eleven he was sent to the military school at 
Brienne (hree-en) in Cham- 
pagne, and in 1784, to the 
military school in Paris. A 
year later he was nominated 
as sub-lieutenant of artillery, 
and detailed on duty in his 
native country. He was 
driven out of the island in 
1792 by the ally of the Eng- 
lish, and withdrew to Mar- 
seilles, where he lived in pov- 
erty with his mother and sis- 
ters. He was made a captain 
In 1793, and was employed to 
put down the rising in Mar- 
oeilles, which he accomplished. 
Before the close of the year he 
was made lieutenant-colonel and sent to join the army be- 
sieging Toulon {too-loii'). 

It was there Bonaparte gave the first evidence of the 
military genius that was to rouse the admiration of the 
world. The army was only a mob and the artillery 
department without any organization whatever. He 
insisted upon a rigid and thorough reorganization, and 
upon a number of reforms, which after much urging on 
his part were adopted. Then he proposed to attack the 
outer works. These were carried, and, as he had foreseen, 




Napoleon Bonaparte. 



248 Yoimg People's History of France. 

tlie allies were compelled to surrender the town and ] 
harbor. 

His decisive success caused him to be appointed 
brigadier-general of artillery, with the chief artillery 
command in the south of France ; but jealousy was at 
work, and, being under suspicion, his name was erased 
from the active list. Five months of idleness followed, 
during which he was so poor that he was almost in rags 
and without enough money to buy more than sufficient 
to keep from starving. His ambition burned within him 
with as fierce a flame as ever, and he was dreaming of 
offering his services to the Gra-nd Seignior, with the hope 
of a dazzling career of conquest in Asia, when the Direc- 
tory, although still suspicious of him, was reduced to 
such extremities that the government mado use of his 
services. 

The reaction against the Reign of Terror led the royal- 
ists to hope for their restoration to power. The little 
Dauphin, son of Louis XVI., had died of ill treatment, 
but the brother of the late King was living in Russia, 
where he had taken refuge, and the royalists wished to 
place him on the throne with the title of Louis XVIIL, 
for the Dauphin had been recognized as Louis XVH., 
King of France, by England and Russia, after the execu- 
tion of his father. 

In the wrangle for power, the National Guard was 
persuaded to join the monarchical cause, and, in October, 
1795, the combined forces, numbering 40,000 men, 
marched on the Tuileries to drive out the Convention and 
prevent the formation of the Directory. In their peril; 



The Republic. — The Directory. 



249 



the Convention appealed to General Barras [har-rah') to 
defend them^ and he asked young Bonaparte to act as his 
lieutenant. With his usual vigor, Bonaparte quickly 
turned the palace into an 
intrenched camp. He had 
barely 6000 troops, but he 
planted his batteries with 
perfect skill in all the streets 
around the x\ssembly, and 
when the National Guard ap- 
peared, he played so terrific- 
ally upon their dense ranks 
with grape shot, that after 
several hours' fighting, they 
broke and fled in all direc- 
tions. That night Bonaparte 
surrounded the different de- 
tachments in their retreats, 
attacked, captured, disarmed 
and sent them to their homes. 

These services were too brilliant to be overlooked, 
and all saw that this young artillery officer was the man 
for the hour. He was appointed second in command of 
the army of the interior and soon afterward by the retire^ 
ment of Barras, was made General of the Interior. 

Meanwhile, Austria, Germany and England were 
pushing their war against France, and it was necessary 
for the Directory to move against them. It was decided 
to attack the enemy at three different points. The bat- 
tles on the Rhine were to be fought by General Moreau 




Barras. 



250 Youno; People's History of France. 



o 



[moJi-roh') and Jourclan, while Napoleon was to advance 
against the A-Ustrians and Sardinians in Northern Italy. 
Vienna, the capital of Austria, was the objective point 
of all three armies. 

It looked as if no man was ever given a more hope- 
less task than Napoleon. The Directory was so poor that 
it could place only a sum less than twenty thousand dol- 
lars in his hands for the expense of the campaign. The 
army itself, numbering barely 40,000, was in a miserable 
condition, and for three years had accomplished nothing. 
It was now huddled at the base of the Alps, between 
Savoy and the sea, whither it had been driven by the 
allies, w^hose forces numbered 60,000 veterans. 

^'Famine, cold and misery," said Napoleon in his first 
proclamation, '^are the school of good soldiers. Here on 
the plains of Italy you will conquer our enemies and 
then you will find comfort, riches and glory. Soldiers of 
the Army of Italy, you will not lack courage for the 
enterprise." 

There was a resistless magnetism about Napoleon. 
His men caught his dauntless spirit, and clamored to be 
led forward by their marvelous leader. Rushing like a 
torrent down the Alps, the "Little Corporal," as his ad- 
miring soldiers called him, routed first the Austrians and 
then the Sardinians. Two weeks later, he made peace on 
his own terms wdth the Sardinians. The Austrians 
rallied at the bridge of Lodi in order to protect Milan, 
the capital of Lombardy. There they were attacked and 
in a furious battle routed, and Napoleon entered Milan in 
triumph. No general had ever moved so swiftly, nor 




Napoleon at the Bridge of Lodi. 



251 



252 Young People's History of France. 

struck so hard and unexpectedly. When he was believed 
to be miles distant, he fell upon the enemy like a cyclone. 

Napoleon now besiged Mantua and the enemy gathered 
a tliird army of 60,000 men to attack him at Verona. 
He passed out of the town by the western gate, crossed 
the river Adige (ad'e-je), fourteen miles below, and 
attacked the Austrians at the village of Areola, in the 
middle of extensive marshes, where the town could be 
reached only by causeways and a wooden bridge. The 
fighting lasted three days, and ended in the retreat of the 
Austrians. Two months later, the decisive struggle took 
place on the plains of Rivoli and again Napoleon was 
victorious. Having conquered Italy, he started for 
Vienna, but the frightened Emperor opened negotiations 
for peace. The treaty of Campo Formio ended the war. 
The prodigious work of Xapoleon included in the brief 
space of two months, eighteen battles fought and won, 
three Austrian armies destroyed and 145,000 prisoners 
captured. Besides, he had levied $9,000 000 tribute on 
the Pope and other Italian rulers who opposed the Direc- 
tory, and established the Cisalpine republic of Northern 
Italy, in which were included Lombardy, Parma, Modena 
and a portion of the Papal dominions. Greater than all 
these, was the whole of the Austrian Netherlands or Bel- 
gium which was ceded to France as the prize of the war. 

It has been said that Napoleon began his campaigns 
with only a beggarly sum of money. Through his vic- 
tories, he was enabled to clothe and feed his army, to send 
$2,000,000 to the Directory, and a large sum to the help 
of the French army in Germany. His amazing success 



The Republic. — The Directory. 



253 



inflamed his ambition. He robbed the Vatican at Rome 
and the churches, libraries and picture galleries of their 
choicest treasures, and sent 
enormous quantities of the 
plunder to France. 

Returning to Paris, he 
spent several months with his 
newly married wife Josephine, 
during which he planned an 
expedition to Egypt. His 
dream was to establish an 
eastern empire, overthrow 
England's supremacy in that 
country, and obtain control of 
the Mediterranean. The Di- 
rectory were uneasy over the 
popularity of the new hero, 
and quickly accepted his pro- 
posal ; for they would be rid 
of him, for a time at least, 
and hardly a member of the 
government believed that success was possible for his 
vast and far-reaching enterprise. 

He left France in the spring of 1798, with a squadron 
carrying 36,000 veterans, most of whom had fought 
under him and were eager to go anywhere at his com- 
mand. The first step necessary was to get possession of 
the strongly fortified island of Malta, nominally in the pos- 
session of the Knights of St. John, but really an out- 
post of England. The guards were bribed and it was 




Josephine. 



254 



Young People's' History of France. 



taken without firing a gun. Napoleon landed at Alex- 
andria in July, and captured the city by storm. Within 
less than a month, his camp was under the shadow of 




The British at Aboukir Bay, 

the Pyramids. Pointing to those great monuments of the 
Pharaohs, he said: ^'Soldiers, from the summits of those 
pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you." 

The Mamelukes were the bravest and best disciplined 
troops in Egypt, but they charged the solid French 



256 



Young People's History of France. 



squares again and again, with no more effect than 
of dashing against a mountain walL Cairo (kl-ro) 
and Lower Egypt fell into the possession of the invaders. 

who thus became virtual mas- 
ters of the most ancient dy- 
nasty in the world. 

But while the French were 
celebrating their triumph, 
news of disaster reached them. 
That grand naval hero, Nel- 
son, had overtaken Napoleon's 
fleet in Aboukir Bay, off Alex- 
andria, and destroyed every 
vessel but two. It was a 
serious blow, for it was 
the first reverse that had 
come to the man who seemed 
to be invincible, and it 
heartened England and her 
allies. 
The disaster spurred Napoleon to greater exertions. 
With the purpose of adding Syria to his conquests, he 
crossed the desert separating Asia from Africa, stormed 
Jaffa and laid siege to Acre, which was stubbornly de- 
fended by the Turks and their English allies. The task 
which Napoleon had given his men was beyond their 
power, for they were worn out by their exhausting 
marches, the frightful heat, and by hunger and pestilence. 
At the end of fifty-seven days, he retreated to Egypt, 
after having with 2,000 men defeated with great slaughter, 
a force of 20,000 Ottomans at Mount Tabor. 




Kleber. 



The Republic. — The Directory. 



257 



All this time, as may be said, Napoleon kept his eye 
on France, thousands of miles away. His friends there 
kept him apprised of the situation, though it took a good 
while for news to travel back 
and forth. With that genius 
which enabled him at times to 
pierce the immediate future 
with unerring vision, he saw 
that the weakness of the Di- 
rectory offered him his golden 
opportunity. He needed no 
one to tell him the real reason 
why the government had been 
so willing to send him off to 
Egypt, wdth his devoted sol- 
diers, and he was not deceived 
for a moment. With exulta- 
tion, he heard that the people 
were wearied of the rule of 
the Directory, that they had 
lost all confidence in it, and 
were longing for almost any change. . 

He determined to hurry to France, not with his army 
but secretly. A ship was hastily prepared, and at 
night he went aboard with a few of his devoted followers. 
He intrusted the army to his second in command, Gen- 
eral Kleber {Ma-hare'), and sailed. On the voyage he 
narrowly escaped capture by the English cruisers, but 
landed in France to the astonishment of every one. He 
was received with unbounded enthusiasm, for the Direc- 

17 — EUis^ France. 




Lucien Bonaparte. 



258 Young People's History of France. 

tory had been growing more unpopular clay by day. Na- 
poleon found that while he was away a new war had 
been begun; Switzerland had been forced to adopt a new 
government modeled on that of the French Republic ; the 
Vatican at Rome had been plundered anew of its treasures, 
and, to crown all, the Pope had been carried as a prisoner 
to France, where he lived but a short time. 

With every condition so inviting, Napoleon was not 
the one to hesitate. He became the head of a powerful 
party, and, aided by his brother Lucien and several of his 
generals, he overthrew the Directory on the famous 18th 
Brumaire, year 8 of the Republic. (November 9, 1799.) 
A new Constitution w^as adopted, under which the gov- 
ernment was placed in the hands of three consuls. Napo- 
leon being the first. They w^ere chosen for a term of ten 
years, but it is hardly worth while to name the other two 
since they were simply the tools of the first consul, who, 
although the country was still called a Republic, was as 
supreme as the Czar of Russia. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

THE REPUBLIC AND THE EMPIRE 1792-1815. 

The Consulate and the Emjnre — (1799-1815). 

NAPOLEON Bonaparte had reached the position he 
craved : he was at the head of the French nation 
and before him opened a career of conquest, whose 
dazzling grandeur was to overshadow the world and 
raise him to a summit of glory that, to quote the extra- 
vagant words of a writer, threatened to disturb the 
equilibrium of the universe. 

That wonderful man was great in everything to which 
he turned his hand. With an iron sternness he ended the 
anarchy that had brought the nation to the edge of ruin. 
Political discussion was stopped. " There are no Jaco- 
bins," he said; "no Royalists; nobody but Frenchmen." 
The opposing newspapers were suppressed, and the others 
wa.rned to be careful. He removed the restrictions to 
trade, established the Bank of France and wiped out the 
savage laws- against the return of French noblemen. He 
created a new nobility, based on merit instead of birth or 
wealth, and instituted the Legion of Honor as a reward 
for meritorious services ; the educational systems were 
vastly improved ; industry and mechanical invention 
were encouraged ; the modern University of France was 

259 



260 Young People's History of France. 

established ; a great system of roads, canals, arsenals, 
harbors and various public works was begun ; he com- 
pleted the Pantheon and the palace of the Louvre (louvr). 
He began building the Church of the Madeleine and 
provided Paris with the Arc de Triomphe, the most 
magnificent structure of its kind in the world ; he made a 
solemn treaty with the Pope in 1801, by which a modified 
form of Catholicism was re-established as the religion of 
France, and, more remarkable than all these, he caused 
the compilation of the Code Napoleon, by which the 
enormous mass of edicts, ancient laws and acts were 
sifted, condensed and made uniform throughout the 
country. In this vast work, the peerless brain of Napo- 
leon was the guide and directing genius. The Code 
Napoleon was a gigantic and masterly work, upon which 
have been founded the laws of France, Western Germany, 
Belgium, Holland, Italy, Switzerland and the code of the 
State of Louisiana in our own country. 

One of Napoleon's first acts was to ask the King of 
England and the Emperor of Germany to agree to a treaty 
of peace, which as he said was "the first necessity and 
the first glory" for all the European nations; but while 
making this Christian proposal, the wily and ambitious 
Consul imposed conditions which no one knew better than 
he would not be accepted by either of the rulers, for he 
insisted that he should be allowed to hold Egypt and 
Malta, and also to control Italy. 

And so the year 1800 opened with preparations for 
war by those who would not boAv to his despotic will. 
In Italy, the Austrians outnumbered the French four to 



The Republic and the Empire. 261 

one. At first the French were defeated. Then Napoleon 
placed himself at the head of the army. His first achieve- 
ment was one that his friends declared and his enemies 
believed impossible. With 35,000 men he crossed the 
Alps in six days, and rushed down like one of their 
awful avalanches upon the plains of Italy. At Marengo, 
June 14, 1800, was fought a tremendous battle, which 
was closed by the surrender of the Austrian general, and 
northwestern Italy once more fell into the hands of the 
French. 

Meanwhile, Moreau had entered Germany with an 
army of 100,000 men. The village of Hohenlinden 
stands in a pine forest, on the river Iser. There, in the 
month of December, 1800, the two armies met in one of 
the most terrific of battles. A tremendous snow storm 
was raging, so that the contending troops could locate 
each other only by the flashes of their guns. Nearly 
every boy and girl has read, and perhaps some of them 
have recited, the poem descriptive of this battle, which 

opens thus: 

>> 

" On Linden, when the sun was low, 
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, 
And dark as winter was the flow 
Of Iser rolling rapidly." 

The last stanza is: 

" Few, few shall part where many meet ! 
The snow shall be their windino; sheet; 
And every turf beneath their feet 

Shall be a soldier's sepulchre." 



262 Young People's History of France. 

Moreau was so overwhelmingly victorious that the 
German Emperor begged for peace in order to save his 
capital. By the treaty of Luneville {lu-nay-veel) made 
soon after, all that had been granted by the treaty of 
Campo Formio was confirmed. The left bank of the 
Rhine and the Austrian Netherlands were to be held by 
France, while the republics of northwestern Italy were 
recognized as her dependencies. 

But while Napoleon was invincible on land, he was 
vanquished on the water. England captured Malta, and 
Nelson broke up the league against Great Britain, which 
had been formed when the latter tried to stop all trade 
with France. Then the French were driven out of Egypt 
and Napoleon began forming his plans for invading Eng- 
land. But the exhaustion of war caused both nations to 
welcome a temporary peace, which was signed at Amiens 
{ah-mee-an') in 1802, and which secured to France all the 
territory between the Pyrenees and the Rhine. 

In the following summer, Napoleon was chosen First 
Consul for life, with the right of naming his successor. 
A wise step on his part was to sell the immense Territory 
of Louisiana to the United States, for it was an element 
of weakness to France. Its sale brought her a large sum 
of money ($15,000,000, as you remember) and strength- 
ened the United States at the expense of England. 

As everybody must have expected, the peace of 
Amiens did not last long. England seized a number of 
French vessels, and Napoleon imprisoned several thousand 
Englishmen within his dominions. This started the 
great war which lasted for ten years. That France 




Napoleon I. in Imperial Robes. 

As the hymn Charlemagne heard, when saluted Emperor of the "West, 
rang Uirough the aisles of Notre Dame at the coronation of Napoleoii 
}., all Paris joined in the acclamations. 

263 



264 Young People's History of France. 

worshipped lier idol was proven on May 18, 1804, when 
by a vote that was almost unanimous the inhabitants 
elected him Emperor. The Pope made a special journey 
to Paris at the close of the year to give the sanction of 
the Church to the people's wishes, and the potentate 
anointed the new sovereign "Emperor of the French" 
in the venerable cathedral of Notre Dame. Then Na- 
poleon did a strange thing, which perhaps after all was 
not strange : he crowded himself and placed a golden 
laurel wreath on the head of Josephine. In the follow- 
ing spring, he crossed the Alps, and, setting the iron 
crown of Lombardy on his head, received the title of 
King of Italy. 

Europe was alarmed by the boundless ambition of Na- 
poleon. England, Russia and Austria formed an alliance 
against him, and he began his preparation for the inva- 
sion of England, which he declared was a "nation of 
shopkeepers." These preparations were on a colossal 
scale and all France ardently favored the tremendous 
project. 

But Admiral Nelson was on the watch, and when the 
combined French and Spanish fleets appeared off Cape 
Trafalgar {tra-fal'gar)^ October 21, 1805, on the southern 
coast of Spain, he attacked them with such bravery and 
skill that both were virtually destroyed. The French 
admiral was so humiliated that he committed suicide. 
The illustrious Nelson lost his life in this battle, but 
gained for his country the mastery of the ocean and 
ended all fear of a French invasion. 

Previous to this, Napoleon unexpectedly led his army 



The Republic and the Empire. 



265 



against A-iistria which was planning with Russia to sur- 
prise the French emperor. But to the amazement of the 
Austrians, Napoleon suddenly appeared before the city of 
Ulm, where he speedily com- 
pelled the Austrian general to 
surrender, and then advanced 
against Vienna, which fell like 
ripe fruit into his hands. 

On the 2d of December, 
1805, he encountered the com- 
bined armies of Russia and 
Germany at Austerlitz, in 
Austria. The allies greatly 
outnumbered the French and 
held a powerful position; but 
Napoleon, by a series of mas- 
terly maneuvres, quick, stra- 
tegic movements and brilliant 
operations won one of the 
most signal triumphs of his 
career. The victory was so 
decisive that when peace was asked for, he dictated his 
own terms. Austria gave up all claim to Italy and her 
"sphere of influence" in Switzerland. He compelled 
Francis 11." to surrender his imperial crown and to be 
satisfied with the title of Emperor of Austria. The num- 
erous states of which the empire had been composed were 
recast with Napoleon as protector and real master. 

Then playing with kings and dynasties as if they were 
so many footballs^ the French emperor seized the kingdom 




Francis II. 



266 



Young People's History of France. 



of Naples and gave the crown to his elder brother Joseph 
who had no ability at all as a military leader and very little 
as a civil ruler. Next the republic of the Netherlands was 

turned into a monarchy and 
presented to his brother Louis, 
with the title of King of Hol- 
land. Finally Italy was 
chopped up into nineteen 
dukedoms and divided among 
his friends. You will notice 
that the grand scheme of Na- 
poleon, was to make France 
the one overshadowing Pow- 
er, surrounded by dependen- 
cies and with him as the 
supreme head and master of 
them all. 

The panic of the northern 
nations caused another coali- 
tion against the one man who 
threatened to trample upon 
them all. Into this mighty 
alliance, entered England, Russia, Sweden, Saxony and 
Prussia, and you would think such an array must sweep 
everything before it. 

War was renewed in 1806. In one day, Napoleon 
fought the great battles of Jena {vay'nah) and Auerstadt 
{ow-er-stet') , humbling the Prussian monarchy into the 
dust. Then entering Berlin, he issued the Berlin Decree, 
November 21, 1806, which forbade all trade or intercourse 




Louis Bonaparte. 






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267 



268 Young People's History of France. 

with England. This decree was followed in 1807 by an- 
other still more stringent. 

What was left of the Prussian forces joined the 
Russians, and a battle was fought at Eylau (i'lou), with- 
out decisive result, bat a few months afterward, the 
French won the victory of Friedland (freeflant), and 
Prussia, by giving up a large portion of her territoiy, 
secured the peace of Tilsit in July, 1807. A part of the 
territory named was formed into the kingdom of AVest- 
phalia, over which Napoleon's brother Jerome was made 
king. 

In order to complete his majestic circle of conquest. 
Napoleon now set out to subjugate Spain and Portugal. 
When the French army reached Lisbon, it inspired such 
terror, that the city surrendered without resistance, and 
the king was sent into exile. Next Napoleon compelled 
the King of Spain to abdicate, and placed his brother 
Joseph, King of Naples, on the throne. Joseph, as I have 
said, was a weak man, and when the angry Spaniards 
rose against him, he gathered enough wealth together to 
support a monarch for a lifetime and withdrew from 
Madrid. All of Spain was surrendered, except a part 
bordering on the Pyrenees. 

All this time, England was busy. She sent an army 
into Spain to expel the French. It Avas under the command 
of Sir Arthur Wellesley, more generally known as the 
Duke of Wellington. The Peninsular War, as it was 
called, began in 1808, and after several years, was suc- 
cessful. Russia threatened Napoleon so seriously that he 
had to withdraw his main forces, after which Wellesley 



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269 



270 Young People's History of France. 

completed the work of driving out the last French army 
from Spain. 

His vast success and mad ambition caused Napoleon 
to commit more than one grave blunder. The Pope 
wished to remain neutral, but the emperor insisted that 
he was only a temporal sovereign, and was bound to aid 
him in crippling English commerce. Since the Pope 
could not be swerved from his position, the emperor 
sent a force into Rome and annexed it to France. The 
Pope excommunicated him, and Napoleon carried the 
Pope off as prisoner, and held him as long as his power 
remained. The foolishness of this act was that it gave 
no strength to the French emperor, and made the Catholic 
clergy of France and of all Europe his enemies. 

Napoleon could not live without war. He picked a 
quarrel with Austria and compelled Russia to be his ally 
for the time, but England did her utmost to baflie the 
"Kino; of Kino-s." The Austrians orained some successes, 
but at AVagram on July 6, 1809, their army was routed 
"horse, foot and dragoons," and in the peace that followed, 
France gained still more territory. 

Bonaparte was now at the zenith of his glory. For 
centuries the world had not seen so resistless a conqueror. 
The boundaries of France reached to the Baltic on the 
north and beyond Rome on the south. His brother Louis 
was King of Holland; Jerome of Westphalia; he expected 
to replace Joseph on the throne of Spain; and when Lu- 
cien, who was not quite as docile as the imperious brother 
demanded, should become tractable, a throne was waiting 
for him. One sister was queen of Naples, being the wife 



The Republic and the Empire. 



271 



of Murat, and the other two were princesses. The Pope 
was the emperor's prisoner, and it seemed impossible to 
gather any army in Europe that could hold its own 
against his marvelous genius. 

Napoleon would brook no 
resistance to his will by 
members of his own family. 
He would not permit them 
to marry, unless he chose 
their partners. Since he had 
no children, he divorced Jos- 
ephine, and, in 1810, com- 
pelled the conquered Emperor 
of Austria to give him his 
daughter Princess Maria 
Louisa in marriage. A son 
was born to them known as 
Napoleon IL, and was called 
the " King of Rome." He 
developed consumption and 
died at the age of twenty-one. 

The putting away of his wife Josephine, marked the 
beginning of Napoleon's downfall. Resentful against 
Russia because the czar refused to close his ports to 
English trade, the Emperor determined to humble her 
and thus cripple an ally of England. 

Now pause a moment to reflect upon a matter to 
whicJi I have already asked your attention — that is the 
incomprehensible folly of sensible men allowing the 
ambition of one human being to cause hundreds of thou- 




General Murat. 
(King of Naples.) 



272 



Young People's History of France. 



sands of deatlis, anguish in multitudes of homes, de- 
vastation amounting to untold millions of dollars, and 

sufferings beyond the power 
of any mind to picture. 
Napoleon wanted Russia to 
inflict misery upon England 
by refusing to trade with her; 
Russia refused; therefore, 
rivers of blood must flow, 
with the end that the Rus- 
sian ports were not closed, 
and all this massacre by 
wholesale went on without 
the gain of a single thing, 
except tears, broken hearts, 
and deaths by the hundreds 
of thousands. What a ser- 
vice would have been ren- 
dered humanity if Napoleon 
Bonaparte had been shot at 
the beginning of his bloody career or he had died about 
the time mentioned ! 

The emperor raised an army of 600,000 men, a host 
too vast for any mind to comprehend. Suppose you 
placed this arm}^ in platoons, each of which contained 
ten men, and started them on the march, with just a yard 
between every tw^o platoons so as to give the men room 
to walk. The length of that army, including its wagon 
trains, would be more than fifty miles! 

This mighty host crossed the river Niemen (nce'man) 




Caroline Bonaparte, 
(Queen of Naples.) 




Josephine Swoons on Hearing the Decree of Divorce. 
IS—MHs' France. 273 



274 Young People's History of France. 

in the summer of 1812, and began its march to Moscow, 
the ancient capital of Russia. No army could be 
gathered strong enough to resist the invaders when led 
by their great commander. The Russians, therefore, fell 
back burning their villages and fields of grain. The 
enemy must have food and forage, and they expected to 
get it from the country as they passed through, but all 
the fair fields were turned into a smoking waste.; The 
Russians inflicted severe suffering and loss upon them- 
selves, but still greater upon their enemies, and, desperate 
as it was, it was the only remedy within their reach. 

Five hundred miles were passed in this manner, when 
the Russians made a stand at Borodino {dee-no). After 
a loss of 45,000 in killed and wounded, and an immense 
loss on the part of the French, the Russians were defeated 
and the road to Moscow opened. Ten days later. Napo- 
leon entered the old city and the invaders began pillaging 
it. Scarcely had they started, when to their dismay, they 
saw fires burning in a score of places. Moscow was 
doomed. Napoleon and his men were appalled, for they 
had reckoned on nothing like this. Nine-tenths of the 
city was laid in ashes, and then the miserable army be- 
gan its return in the depth of winter through the snow 
and ice. No pen can describe, no mind conceive the hor- 
rors of that retreat. The Cossack cavalrv hovered on the 
flanks of the freezing army and cut down the men by the 
hundred, while tens of thousands perished from cold and 
starvation. At the Beresina {see'na) river, the Russians 
made a determined stand, killed multitudes and many 
more met their deaths in the icy waters. Of that mag- 



The Republic and the Empire. 



275 



nificent army of more than half a million men who en- 
tered Russia with elastic step and in high hope, only a 
shivering rabble of 20,000 tottered back to France. 
Napoleon had previously fled 
in disguise to Paris. 

All France was in mourn- 
ing, but such was the power 
of this one man that he soon 
raised an army of 350,000 
soldiers to fight a new coali- 
tion, consisting of England, 
Russia, Prussia, Austria and 
Sweden, under whose ban- 
ners a million muskets were 
gathered. The decisive con- 
flict took place at Leipsic, in 
Germany, in the autumn of 
1813. The allied army num- 
bered 250,000 men and the 
French about 150,000. This 
great contest has been called the Battle of the Nations. 
At the end of three days. Napoleon was completely 
routed. The allied armies invaded France, swept every- 
thing before them, and Paris, being unable to defend itself 
against them, surrendered. The victorious hosts passed 
through her gates, March 31, 1814. 

Feeling that all hope was gone, Napoleon abdicated, 
that is surrendered his crown. ^It is said he took poison, 
but it failed of effect. He was sent as an exile to the 
island of Elba in the Mediterranean, and all Eurone f^r 
tne nrsx time m years nreatUed treeiy 




Joseph Bonaparte. 



276 Young People's History of France. 

But lo! on March 1, 1815, Napoleon escaped with the 
help of friends, and reached France. His arrival caused 
consternation to the royalists and the wildest joy to the 
populace who still worshipped him. Marshal Ney (no), 
who had been sent to arrest the usurper, deserted to him, 
and when the troops were drawn up with orders to shoot 
their ^'Little Corporal," he walked out in front of them, 
folded his arms and called : Who dares to shoot at his 
emperor ? " The men rushed forward and almost 
smothered him in their frantic embraces. The whole 
nation went mad, and he entered Paris on the 20th of 
March amid scenes of joy and enthusiasm, sucli as that 
impulsive city has rarely seen in its long and stirring 
history. 

After the surrender of Paris, a provisional govern- 
ment had been formed, and the brother of Louis XVI. 
was placed on the throne, with the title of Louis XVIH. 
(You remember that tbe Dauphin who was Louis XVII. 
had died), and the Bourbon family was formally restored 
May 3, 1814. It was while a congress of the European 
Powers at Vienna were engaged in settling the affairs of 
Europe, that it received news of the escape of Napoleon 
from Elba. 

Louis XYIII. fled on the approach of the ogre, who in 
less than two months found himself again on the throne 
of France, with an army of 200,000 men without the 
National Guard. The allies prepared for the impending 
conflict. Three immense armies were formed. The first 
consisted of x\ustrians; the second of British, Germans 
and Prussians, and the third of Russians. On Sunday, 




Napoleon's Eetnrn from Elba. 

Throwinypen his surtout so ns to show the star <,f the Le^^ion of Honor 
^apoleou exclaimed : - If there be among you a soldier who de'ires to 
. kill his general-his Emperor-let him dS it now. Here I am P' 

277 



278 Young People's History of France. 

June 18, 1815, was fouglit the battle of Waterloo, where 
the allies under the Duke of Wellington routed the 
French and drove them into precipitous flight. Napoleon 
fled to Paris, but seeing the uselessness of further resist- 
ance, he made his way to the coast and surrendered to a 
British ship of war. He was sent as a captive to the 
little island of St. Helena, where he arrived in October, 
1815, and was closely guarded until his death. May 5, 
1821. Thus ended perhaps the most extraordinary 
career in the annals of the world. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
HOUSE OF BOUKBO^ (restored) . 1815-1830. 

Louis XVIII.— Charles X. 

YOU will remember that Louis XVIII. was a brother of 
Louis XVL, whom the revolutionists executed. The 
former was about a year younger than the latter, and 
was originally known as the Count de Provence. He fought 
with the allies against the republicans, but his services 
amounted to little. Having fled from France upon the 
approach of Napoleon after his escape from Elba, he 
came back a second time and entered Paris July 9, 1815, 
two days behind the British and Prussians. He dated 
his accession from the time of the death of his nephew 
Louis XYIL, in 1795, making what was really the first 
year the twentieth of his reign. Thus Napoleon Bona- 



280 Young People's History of France. 

parte was treated as a usurper not worth taking into 
account, and yet you have learned that the " Little Cor- 
poral" made matters very lively for the crowned heads of 
Europe. 

The new king was a true Bourbon, who forgot nothing 
and learned nothing. He was a believer in the divine 
right of kings, but he was obliged to bow at first to the 
will of the people, in some respects. When he first 
ascended the throne, he granted a liberal charter, which 
he had to bind himself to respect. 

The Royalists did not know how to be magnanimous 
in their day of triumph. Marshal Ney, one of the 
bravest men that ever lived, who had been a prominent 
actor on the side of Napoleon after his escape from Elba, 
and several other generals that had fought on a score of 
bloody battlefields were shot for their devotion to the fallen 
Emperor. Ney had sworn to support the Bourbon dynasty 
and then deserted it. According to the laws of war, his 
execution was just, but all Europe sympathized with him 
and the Duke of Wellington made a special appeal in his 
favor. 

Perhaps you have read accounts that appear from 
time to time in the newspapers, declaring that Marshal 
Ney was not executed, but was permitted to escape and 
that he made his way to the United States, where he 
lived for a good many years, engaged as a teacher in the 
South. Some of these accounts were so full, and sup- 
ported by such good testimony that it was hard to doubt 
their truth. We should all be glad to believe that 
Marshal Ney, the '' Bravest of the brave" was thus spared 
to old age, but it is not likely that he was. 



House of Bourbon (Restored). 



281 



At tlie conclusion of a war, the rule is to make the 
conquered nation pay an "indemnity" to the victor. 
This is a good law, and if the indemnity were made ten 
times more grievous, it would 
be still better, for it would 
tend to discourage the busi- 
ness of wholesale murder. In 
addition to an immense bill 
for damages, France was now 
compelled to pay $140,000,000 
to the allies, to surrender a 
number of frontier fortresses, 
and to support at her own 
expense a border garrison of 
150,000 soldiers for three 
years. These troops, how- 
ever, were withdrawn be- 
fore the end of the period ,, , , 

T ^ Marshal Ney. 

named. 

Thousands of the Bonapartists were imprisoned an(^ 
persecuted. The state of affairs was the opposite of that 
in the United States, at the close of the Civil War in . 
1865. As soon as the last gun was fired and General 
Lee surrendered at Appomattox, the North and South 
became warm friends and not a solitary person was ever 
executed for fighting against the Union. The fires of 
mutual hatred burned a long time in France. 

In the month of February, 1820, while the Duke of 
Berry, nephew of the king, was escorting the duchess to 
their carriage, at the close of the opera, he was stabbed 




282 Young People's History of France. 

to death by a wretch, who wished to show his detestation 
of the Bourbon race. Such crimes always react and the 
effects are evil in every respect. Sympathy was roused 
for the Bourbons and the hatred between political parties 
intensified. 

Despite the liberal constitution granted at first by the 
king, he did not hesitate, being a true Bourbon, to violate 
its spirit and letter. -Individual liberty was suspended, 
the press was muzzled and the powers of the landed pro- 
prietors greatly increased. Tlie Jesuits .returned to 
France and the skies of the Bourbons were radiant with 
promise. 

The monarchies of Europe were still shivering because 
of the seeds of democratic principles sown by the French 
Revolution. People were beginning to think, or rather 
they continued to think about justice, equal rights and 
such things that are very troublesome to those who claim to 
rule by divine right. The Czar of Russia became so un- 
easy that he persuaded the Emperor of Austria and the 
King of Prussia to unite with him in forming the ^'Holy 
AlUance," whose avowed purpose was to help the cause of 
Ciiristianity, as they considered that sacred cause to be, 
but whose real object was to crush the spread of demo- 
cratic ideas. In Spain, which has always been one of the 
most oppressive governments in the world, the people 
rose against the tyrannous acts of their sovereign Ferdi- 
nand YII. France was forced to send an army thither to 
heljD the tyrant, and Louis XYIII. naturally grew more 
oppressive at home. The life of the laboring man be- 
came one of drudgery and his lot indeed was a sorry one. 



Souse of Bourbon (Restored). 



283 



The king was too much of a gkitton to restrain his 
gross appetite. He knew he was injuring himself by over 
eating, but he would not stop. He was attacked by a dry 
erysipelas in his 
legs, and soon lost 
the power of walk- 
ing. Then he be- 
came enormously 
fat, and still gor- 
mandizing, died 
September 16, 
1824, at the age of 
sixty-nine years. 

His brother, two 
years younger, suc- 
ceeded as Charles 
X. He proved to 
be more of a Bour- 
bon than the dead 
king, who had at- 
tempted to give 
him some good 

advice, but which The Duke of Berry. 

received no attention. Charles cared nothing^ for the 
Charter, but believed his mission to be the restoration 
of the monarchy with all its hateful privileges. In 
ancient times, every article touched by the king was 
regarded with awe and reverence. One belief was that 
the contact of his hand would cure disease, this being 
esjDccially true of scrofula, which I presume, because of 




284 Yoimg Peoj)ie's History of France. 

that superstition, is sometimes called the "king's evil." 
Would you believe that Charles X. was fool enough to 
restore this old custom, at which every sensible person 
laughed ? 

There seemed to be no idiotic lengths to which this 
monarch did not go, apparently under the belief that it 
was impossible for him to disgust the people. One of 
his first acts was to demand that $200,000,000 should be 
paid to the nobles who had fled the country during the 
days of the Republic instead of remaining and lighting 
for their rights. Then he insisted that the nunneries 
should be re establishd, the right of primogeniture — that 
is of the privileges of parents descending to their first- 
born — and severe laws to compel men to be good, as if 
such a thing as law ever made a person good. All these 
demands were granted by the chambers or ruling body. 

These silly and oppressive measures were just what 
was needed to strengthen the Liberal party which grew 
rapidly. The only praiseworthy act of France during 
those times was done abroad. Greece was engaged in a 
life and death struggle with Turkey, and would have 
been crushed but for England, Russia and France, whose 
fleets annihilated that of the Turks at Navarino in 1827, 
and thus delivered the gallant little country from bondage. 

There is none so blind as those who won't see. The 
National Guard of France was made up mostly of honest, 
law-loving persons and was looked upon as the one great 
wall against violence and anarchy. The king issued an 
order disbanding the National Guard and the people were 
almost angry enough to break out in open rebellion ; but 



House of Bourbon (Kestored). 



285 



there had been so much woe and misery by revolts, that 
they waited and contented themselves with sending more 
Liberal members to the 
Chambers. 

Then the king tried to 
have a law passed forbid- 
ding the publication of all 
newspapers and books 
which were not approved 
by his committee. Fortu- 
nately the bill failed to be- 
come a law, and moreover, 
he was compelled to make 
some concessions to the 
Liberal party, one of which 
was to remove the Jesuits 
from the control of the 
schools and colleges. 

Another triumph 
gained abroad was the 
conquest, in 1830, of the 
city of Algiers and the establishment of a flourish- 
ing French colony in Northern Africa. It was this 
military success that gave Charles X. courage to force 
matters at ' home. His opposition to the wishes of 
the people was continually proven by his acts, but in the 
elections of 1830, the Liberals gained a sweeping victory. 
It should have been a warning to the bigoted king, but 
such as he do not know enough to heed a warning of that 
nature. Instead of bowing to the will of the people, he 
determined upon a coup d' etat {koo-day-tah'). 




Louis XVIII. Advising Charles X. 



286 



Young People's History of France. 



When the governing power of a country commits a 
violent, unexpected and unlawful act by which it seizes 

the supreme power, 
it is said to make a 
coup d' etat. 

The king suspen- 
ded the liberty of the 
press; dissolved the 
Liberal legislature, 
that had just been 
elected; withdrew 
the ballot from all 
except property 
holders ; summoned 
a new leg-islature to 
be elected under the 
law just proclaimed, 
and nominated a 
Council of State, 
composed of his own 
partisans. 

This daring ac- 
tion was beyond the 
power of Paris to 
stand and the people 
broke out in revolt, 
which lasted throughout July 27, 28 and 29, 1830. The 
royal guard and the Swiss showed great bravery, but they 
were overcome, and the army refused to fight for the 
abominated king, who, if he had been blind before, now 




Charles X. 



House of Orleans. 287 

saw things as they were. France wanted him no longer, 
and the only way to save his head was by abdicating, 
which he proceeded to do in favor of his grandson, the 
Duke of Bordeaux. His tomfoolery had cost him his 
throne and 6000 victims either killed or wounded, who 
were worth infinitely more than the throne. 

Once more the House of Bourbon was snuffed out, 
and the dethroned king, who had long been accustomed 
to a wandering life, shook the dust of his native land 
from his feet, and faced toward England, finally taking 
up his abode at Holy rood Palace, Edinburgh, where twenty 
years before he had found an asylum. He removed to 
different places, and finally died in 1836, from an attack 
of cholera. 



CHAPTER XX. 

HOUSE OF ORLEANS. 1830-1852. 

Louis Philippe — The Republic, 

THE father of Louis Philippe was the Duke of Orleans 
a savage wretch, who, under the name of Philippe 
Egalite (e-gaVi-te, meaning equality), took a leading 
part in the excesses of the Revolution, and like many of 
his associates fell a victim to the guillotine. The son 
was summoned at the same time to appear before the 
Committee of Public Safety, but he had sense enough to 



288 Young People^s History of France. 

get out of reach as fast as he could. He traveled a great 
deal through European countries and spent several years 
with two of his brothers in the United States. He was 
fifty-three years old when crowned, because the prominent 
men in whom the inhabitants had confidence favored him. 

Louis Philippe had done several things that pleased 
the people. He bore a good character, had favored the 
views of the Liberals, was simple in his tastes, had edu- 
cated his boys in the public schools, and seemed to have 
the good of the country and people at heart. He promptly 
accepted tlie Charter of Rights agreed upon by the 
Cb amber of Deputies and his reign began very promis- 
ingly. He was a member of what was called the Bour- 
bon-Orleans family and was often referred to as the 
" Citizen Kino;." 

To understand the events that follow, you must bear 
in mind that there were four political parties at that 
time in France. The most determined was the Republi- 
cans, who believed that the best form of government in 
the world was that of the United States (and therein 
they showed their good sense) ; they favored a republic 
and were sure that the rio;:lit tliino; to do with kino's was 
to bundle them off about their business and let them 
earn their living like honest folks, instead of trying to 
rule those who were abler and better than the}'. 

Then there were the Bonapartists. Frenchmen could 
not forget the glory that wrapped that name in a halo, 
but they did forget the woe and misery and wretched- 
ness and humiliation brought to France by that colossal 
curse, whose career was a blight to humanity, and they 



House of Orleans. 



289 



dreamed of the restoration of the Empire and the splen- 
dor that had dazzled their senses. They advocated the 
placing of a member 
of the Bonaparte 
family on the throne. 
There were plenty of 
Bonapartists then and 
you can find them in 
France to-day, though 
not in sufficient num- 
bers to make trouble. 

The Constitution- 
alists supported the 
king and favored a 
monarchy, limited by 
a constitution like 
that of England. Fi- 
nally, there were the 
Legitimists who be- 
lieved that the most 
lieavenly form of gov- 
ernment that ever 
blessed mankind was 
that of the Bourbons, 
just as it tormented 
the people before the 
Revolution and had Louis PMiippe. 

at intervals cursed them since. 

As I said, everything looked promising, but the French 
are the most excitable people in the world, ready to 

19 — Ellis'' France. 




290 Young People's History of France. 

appeal to revolution at all times in support of their 
views, and often swayed by blind impulse and passion. 
Several ominous incidents showed the bitterness between 
the political parties. You remember that the Duke of 
Berry was assassinated. The Legitimists were holding a 
service in memory of him, when a vicious attack was 
made upon the church by the Republicans and rabble, 
the crucifix, the priests' vestments and the communion 
plate were thrown into the Seine and the archbishop's 
residence was gutted. Several other outbreaks occurred 
and how do you suppose the authorities quelled them ? 

Naturally you think it was by grapeshot, or the 
sabres of the mounted cavalry, but it was very different. 
The fire engines were called out and the hose squirted 
such big streams upon the howling mob that their pas- 
sions were cooled and they were sent scurrying in every 
direction to dodge the deluge. It was impossible for the 
king to please all parties, and the rancor on the part of 
the Republicans was shown by several desperate attempts 
to assassinate him. More than once he had a remarkable 
escape. 

The year 1832 is memorable because of the first 
visitation of Europe by that dreadful pestilence, cholera. 
It attracted attention in the East in the early part of the 
century, and kept creeping toward Europe. In 1828 and 
1829, it appeared in different places in Russia, but as I 
have said, its first real visitation was in 1832. Cholera 
attacks a person without warning and it often happens 
that within two hours of the attack, he is dead. In the 
space of six months 20,000 victims died in Paris alone, 



House of Orleans. 



291 



and many entire villages were left without a living 
person. 

Three months after its appearance in France, the dis- 
ease crossed the Atlantic, first appearing at Quebec^ and 
three weeks later at New York. 
Old people who can remember 
as far back as that, will tell 
yoii dreadful tales of the 
ravages of the disease. Our 




The Kue de Rivoli, Paris. 



country at the time was engaged in the Black Hawk 
War, and so many soldiers died from cholera that General 
Scott had to -stop the campaign until the cooler weather 
of autumn. 



292 Young People's History of France. 

There was continual plotting against the king, and 
naturally severe laws were made by him and his friends 
for their protection. Some of the papers were so abusive 
that rightly enough they were suppressed, but this power 
was often used unjustly to prevent the expression of 
honest opinions. 

Among the plotters against the king was a miserable 
fraud, of whom I may as well tell you something in this 
place, since he is soon to come prominently forward 
again j I refer to Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, son 
of Louis Bonaparte, ex-king of Holland and brother of 
the great Napoleon. He was born in Paris in 1808, but 
had not one spark of the ability of his uncle, who over- 
turned and created new empires at his pleasure. Never- 
theless, although banished from France, Louis Napoleon 
and a few of his friends made an attempt in 1836, to 
seize the fortress of Strasburg, believing that because 
the town was not specially fond of the existing govern- 
ment, it would rally around the name of Napoleon. 

The attempt was a ridiculous failure, and Napoleon 
himself was captured, taken to Paris and spared on con- 
dition that he should be sent to the United States. Some 
persons might wonder why it was that France, after prov- 
ing so good a friend to us in our Revolution, should thus 
show her ill will. He spent several years in this country, 
and at times had hard work to earn his bread and butter, 
but all the time he was watching matters in France, think- 
ing about his uncle, and never forgetful of the fact that he 
really had a right to the name of Bonaparte. 

Biding his time, he took up his residence in England 



House of Orleans. 



293 



in the latter part of 1838, and, in 1840, determined to 
make another attempt to gain the French throne. He 
hired a London steamer, the City of Edinhurgh, and with 
fifty-five associates, landed Aug- 
ust 6, near Boulogne (boo-lon') 
and summoned the troops to 
surrender or join him. Only 
one man surrendered, a young 
lieutenant of the 42d regiment, 
who tried to persuade the others 
to imitate him, but they refused. 
The National Guard beat to 
anns, and the tame eagle wdth 
which the Prince had provided 
himself could not be coaxed to 
make its impressive flight in 
air, and thus fire the enthusiasm 
of the soldiers by appealing to 
their memories of the eagles of the great Napoleon. 

The "nephew of his uncle" concluded that the time 
had come to retreat, and he started in haste for his 
steamer, but he was captured before he could get away. 
The leaders were taken to Paris, put on trial and con- 
victed of treason. The prince was sentenced to perpetual 
imprisonment in a fortress and confined in the citadel of 
Ham. 

One day, after he had been a prisoner for six years, 
he put on the disguise of a workman, and, succeeding in 
eluding the vigilance of the guards, made his escape 
Mav 25, 1846. He crossed the frontier into Belgium, 




Napoleon III. 



294 



Young People's History of France. 



and for tlie third time took refuge in England, where he 
remained until the revolution of 1848, of which we shall 
now learn. 

In 1846, the Queen of Spain married her cousin, and 
her sister at the same time married the youngest son of 

the king of France. In 
this way the Spanish and 
French Bourbons were 
closely joined, much to the 
dissatisfaction of England, 
which saw danger of an 
extension of the power of 
Louis Philippe to Spain. 
The liberals of France were 
also displeased, for they 
believed evil would come 
from the alliance. 

The discontent in- 
creased. Most of the 
people were still without 
the ballot, and began to 
clamor for the same 
rights that had been given 
to the workmen in Eng- 
land. Meetings were held at which fiery speeches were 
made, and a grand banquet was arranged for Washing- 
ton's birthday, February 22, 1848. The government 
attempted to repress this banquet, whereupon the enraged 
populace rose in rebellion. When the troops joined the 
the mob, the king thought it was time to flee and he did 




Eebellion, 1848. 



House of Orleans. 



295 



so^ making his escape to England where he died two 
years later. 

The king being out of the way, a provisional govern- 
ment was formed, consisting of seven members, and 
France was declared a republic with the motto, "Liberty, 
Equality and Fra- 
ternity." Distinc- 
tions of nobility 
and hereditary ti- 
tles were abolished 
and a national as- 
sembly was called 
for the purpose of 
framing a consti- 
tution. The one 
adopted vested the 
government in a 
president, to be 
elected for a term 
of four years, and 
a na^tional assembly. Louis Napoleon was elected by a 
large majority first president of the republic. 

In accepting this apparent proof of the confidence of 
his fellow citizens, he declared, " My name is a symbol of 
order, natioiiality and glory." He was crafty and am- 
bitious. Knowing that a large number viewed him with 
distrust, he took every possible means of removing the 
feeling. He complained of the injustice of such suspi- 
cions and sought to strengthen his hold upon the French 
jiation, more especially the soldiery, by reviving, when- 




The Pantheon, seen from the Gardens of 
the Lycee of Henry IV, 



296 



Young People's History of France. 



ever the chance ofleied, the most agreeable memories of 

his uncle's rule. 

Meanwhile, in Italy a revolution had broken out and 

the people were engaged in a struggle to free themselves 

from the Austrian yoke. A revolt in Eome was so suc- 
cessful that the Pope fled, 
and under the leadership 
of Garibaldi and Mazzini 
{mat-zee'ne), a republic was 
declared. It is said that 
Louis Napoleon had 
pledged himself to favor 
Italian liberty, but such 
pledges counted for naught 
when his own interests 
were at stake. He sent a 
strong force to crush the 
Roman republic and rein- 
state the Pope, and by that 
means, he gained the warm 
support of the Church. 

street Singers, Paris. q^^ ^f ^^^ prOvisioUS 

of the new constitution was the wise one that the presi- 
dent of the republic could not again be a candidate until 
he had been out of oflice for at least one term. Thus, 
Louis Napoleon after serving his first term would have 
to wait until 1856, which he could not bring himself to 
do. But how could he help himself? Ah, there was 
the coup d' etat. Why not appeal to that? 

He made careful and secret preparations. He filled 




House of Orleans. 



297 



the most important offices with those upon whom he 
could depend; created new generals, cultivated the good 
will of the army and promised rewards where they were 
likely to be effective. Learning that the Assembly was 
about to take measures to check his growing influence, he 




Le Pont-Neuf, Paris. 

made his first move at midnight, December 1, 1851, 
when his most prominent opponents in the Legislature 
were taken from their beds and hurried to prison. Plac- 
ards had been prepared and when Paris awoke the next 
morning, the city was white with them. 

These announced that the Legislative Assembly was 
dissolved; universal suffrage restored; a new general 
election called for December 14, Paris and the suburbs 
were in a state of siege and the Council of State dissolved. 

The plans were so perfect that the slight resistance 



298 Young People's History of France. 

made amounted to nothing. A new constitution was pro- 
claimed, which not only added greatly to the powers of 
the president but extended his term to ten years. The 
people accepted, for most of them were disgusted with the 
continual wrangling in the National Assembly from which 
no good had resulted. 

Thus matters stood for about a year. In the autumn 
of 1852, Louis Napoleon made tours through several of the 
departments of France, and when he returned his friends 
insisted that the cries of ^^ViveL' Empereur!" which 
greeted him everywhere left no doubt of the wishes of 
the people, and it was proposed that the question of 
restoring the empire should be submitted to the country. 

This proposal was accepted, and when the vote was 
counted, it was found that the French nation had declared 
in favor of the restoration of the empire by a majority 
of 6,000,000. Accordingly the empire was proclaimed 
December 2, 1852, the Prince assuming the style and title 
of "Napoleon HI., Emperor of the French, by the grace 
of God and the will of the people." He was recognized 
by the English government, afterward by the -other 
Powers, and finally by the Emperor of Russia and the 
German sovereigns. 



CHAPTER XXl. 

THE SECOND EMPIRE 1852-1870. 

Napoleon III. 

UNDER Napoleon III. it looked for a time as if the 
splendor and magnificence of the First Empire 
were to be restored. Paris was almost rebuilt on a 
scale of grandeur that made it the wonder of the world and 



M:i': 




The Louvre as seen from the Rue Marengo. 

drew admiring visitors from all quarters of the globe. 
The metropolis was completely sewered and became a 
model of cleanliness and health and other cities followed 

299 



300 



Young People's History of France. 



her example. The Louvre was completed; boulevards 
were cut through; new ones made; schools and churches 
sprang up in all quarters; gardens and promenades were 

laid out and im- 
mense improve- 
ments were car- 
ried on in the 
construction o f 
railways, canals, 
roads and ports. 
No industry 
w^ a s neglected. 
Boards of agri- 
culture were or- 
ganized, and ag- 
ricultural prizes 
offered in order 
to spread the 
best methods 
among farmers and breeders. Institutions for their ben- 
efit w^ere founded, forests were renewed on the mountains 
and the division and sales of common lands helped in 
every way. The sum of $20,000,000 was appropriated 
to improve the systems of draining, and thousands of 
acres that had long been considered to be waste lands 
were turned into fertile fields for culture. The public 
schools were perfected, and elementary instruction in 
agriculture was required in all of them. In fifteen years, 
the number of children who received primary instruction 
was increased by a million, and 13,000 school libraries 




A Cabaret in Montmartre, Paris. 



Ilhe Second Empire. 



301 



were estahlWysO. The pay of teachers was increased and 

the standard of ^^heir qualifications raised. Hundreds of 

evening schools for the instruction of adults were founded; 

technical schools established and the Ecole 

des Hautes Etudes {'d-kol da zote-za t\ 

instituted for ad ranee d scientific 

researches. 

Through the 
Fonder the landed 
prietors were ena- 
bled to improve 
their propeYty 
and raise their 
mortgage?^, more 
easily. The 
Ci^edil Mohilier 
extended credit 
more rapidly 
than was wise, 
for many fail- 
ures resulted, 
and when the 
State wished to contract a loan, instead of applying 
solely to the bankers, it invited the citizens to be- 
come subscribers. Following the example of England, 
free trade was established and commercial treaties on 
that basis were made with England, Italy, Belgium, 
Turkey and other countries. For a long time im- 
prisonment for debt was a common penalty but that 
was now wiped out, The World's Exhibitions held in 




Law School, Paris. 



302 Young People's History of France. 

Paris in 1855 and in 1867, were patronized by tlie leading 
nations of the globe and gave a powerful impulse to all 
forms of industry. In order to strengthen foreign com- 
merce, the government aided in the establishment of new 
lines of steamers to America and from the Mediterranean 
ports to Asia. A natural result was that the annual 
amount of exportations and importations tripled in the 
course of twelve years. The rights of workmen to com- 
bine for the purpose of securing higher wages was 
recognized by law, and pauperism and crime were greatly 
diminished. Paris became the head of fashion for the 
civilized world, and the Mecca of all who looked upon 
pleasure and enjoyment as the end and aim of life. 

Was not France under the Second Empire the ideal of 
the highest and best form of government? Why should 
it not serve as the model for other peoples? Why should 
it not be forever a beacon light and guide to all nations 
struggling toward the perfection of human rule? 

I tell you, my young friends, no nation can become 
and remain truly great, happy and prosperous, unless it 
clings immovably to pure Christianity. It may attain 
power and glory, and for a time dazzle the world by its 
splendor, but, just so sure as night follows day, so sure 
will ruin follow, if that nation forsakes the principles of 
truth, right, justice and humanity. The history of 
France, from the time of the Gauls, to say nothing of 
other nations, has proven this time3 almost without 
number. 



The Second Empire. 



303 



Napoleon III. was selfish, base and wicked, and 
those associated with him in the government were the 
same. His court was corrupt to the core, and underneath 
all the apparent - 
prosperity were the 
rapidly growing 
seeds of decay. The 
fountain was im- 
pure, the tree was 
rotten at the root, 
the professed Chris- 
tianity was blasphe- 
mous hypocrisy, the 
rulers were follow- 
ing strange gods 
and now observe 
the consequences. 

Russia has been 
for many years, as 




Schoolboys Leaving the Lycee. 



she is to-day the great Power that threatens the peace of 
Europe. Wise men prophesy that the final mighty struggle 
for mastery will open on the frontier of India between Rus- 
sia and Great Britain and before it ends all Europe will be 
ablaze. The advance of Russia into Turkey led to an alli- 
ance in 1854 between France and England on the side of 
Turkey. It looked strange to see those old rivals and ene- 
mies united as friends. In September the allies, 70,000 
strong, landed on the shores of the Crimea and began the 
siege of Sebastopol. This siege, lasting almost a year, was 
accompanied by suffering, disease and death, which made 



304 



Young People's History of France. 



it the most terrible in the history of modern warfare. 
The city fell in September, 1855, and a few months later 
the Emperor, Nicholas, died, disappointed and almost 

broken hearted over 
the failure of his far- 
reaching schemes. 
Peace was made, and 
Turkey, "the sick 
man of Europe," un- 
fortunately was pre- 
served to continue 
its crimes. 

Napoleon III. de- 
clared war against 
Austria in 1859, with 
the avowed purpose 
of helping Italy in 
her struggle for in- 
dependence. The war 
was very popular, 
but the Emperor 
thought only of his own interests. It was successful 
and would have been pressed to the end but for the 
threatened interference of Prussia and Germany on the 
side of Austria. This led Napoleon III. to make peace, and 
in payment for his help he received the provinces of Savoy 
and Nice. 

I suppose one reason why many of us Americans so 
dislike the memory of Napoleon III. is because he was 
our most malignant enemy during the War for the Union. 




Left Wing of Opera House, Paris. 



c 


3^ 


o 


,> 




'S 




« 




<u 


6 


Ch 


fl 


w' 




ilii luj I I liiiu 1 1 II III II mil liiiiuiiiiii ll 

20— Ellis' France. 



306 



Young People's History of France. 






He was anxious to see this country destroyed, and tried 
all he knew how to persuade England to join him in rec- 
ognizing the Southern Confederacy. Finally, a dispute 

with Mexico led him to be- 
lieve that, while our hands 
were tied Avith our own 
war, we should not dare 
to interfere with a flagrant 
violation of the Monroe 
Doctrine by him. So he 
sent a French army into 
Mexico and persuaded 
Maximilian of Austria that 
there would be little diffi- 
culty in establishing an 
empire there, with Maxi- 
milian as Emperor. Our 
government thought it 
best to let the intruders 
alone until we were 
through with our own 
troubles. That was not 
long, and notice was then 
sent to Napoleon III. that he and his army must get out of 
Mexico. He knew that such notice meant " business," and 
he abandoned his dupe, Maximilian to his fate. The Mexi- 
cans pressed the war so hard against the invaders that 
they were routed, and Maximilian and his two leading 
generals were captured in 1867 and shot. That was the 
end of Louis Napoleon's attempt to found a French 
empire on the American continent. 




The Medici Fountain, Luxembourg 
Garden, Paris. 



The Second Empire. 



307 



Vicompte Ferdinand de Lesseps (la-seps'), born at Ver- 
sailles in 1805, an eminent engineer, completed, in 1869, 
the Suez Canal, which joins the waters of the Mediter- 
ranean and the Red Sea. The original capital of 




Hotel de Ville, Paris. 

$60,000,000 was increased to $90,000,000, and on 
November 17, the canal was opened to commerce, in the 
presence of the Empress Eugenie, and other crowned 
heads. On that memorable day, 130 ships passed through 
free of toll. The Suez Canal has proven of immeasurable 
benefit to the world at large, for vessels, which formerly 
had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope to reach India 



308 Young People's History of France. 

and China, now save thousands of miles by using the 
canal. 

You remember the terrific beating which Germany 
suffered at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte. The 
wounds did not heal after his death on St. Helena, and 
another war was one of the certainties of the future. 
Germany spent years in preparing for it. Bismarck, the 
greatest statesman of modern times, was the real power 
in Germany, and he laid his plans with consummate skill. 
He, King William and Yon Moltke meant that when the 
time came to strike, they would strike with the fabled 
hammer of Thor. There were scores of German teachers 
employed in the schools of France, who made themselves 
familiar with the streams, strength of the bridges, the 
'^ lay of the land," the military power of the country, 
and indeed with everything that could be of help to their 
government. 

There was continual friction, but the rupture did not 
come until 1870. In that year, the vacant throne of 
Spain was offered to Prince Leopold, an officer of the 
Prussian army, and a relative of the Prussian King, who 
told him he might accept it. Napoleon III. flared up, 
as perhaps he was justified in doing, and Leopold seeing 
the trouble that was likely to come, like a sensible fellow 
withdrew his name. Surely that ought to have ended the 
matter, but Napoleon III. had no more sense or good taste 
than to demand from the King of Prussia a written pledge 
that he never would support Leopold as a candidate for 
the Spanish throne. 

Count Bismarck, the Prussian Prime Minister, re- 



The Second Empire. 



309 



garded this demand as an msnlt and refused to lay it be- 
fore his King. Some time later, the French Ambassador 
(Count Benedetti who died March 28, 1900) meeting the 
King in a public park, haught- 
ily insisted upon his giving the 
pledge. The brusque old mon- 
arch told the Frenchman that 
that was not the time nor place 
to consider the question, and 
notified the impudent Ambass- 
ador that he would not be 
allowed to enter the palace, or 
meet the Emperor again. 

Then it was Napoleon's 
turn to consider himself insul- 
ted, and he declared war on 
July 19, 1870. The step was 
popular, and only those who 

knew the facts looked for any result other than the 
defeat of the Prussians. Empress Eugenie clapped her 
gloved hands and exultingly declared '^ This is my war!" 
and her misguided subjects raised the war cry, " On to 
Berlin!" Napoleon III. placed himself at the head of a 
body of troops, and marching northward, made his head- 
quarters at Metz, from which city he intended to cross 
the Rhine into Germany. 

But lo ! before that could be done, the Germans were 
in France and marching straight npon Paris! Their 
armies were numerous and powerful, they were led by 
the ablest of officers, and were in the highest state of 




Count Bismarck. 



310 Young People's History of France. 

discipline. The Frencli were poorly equipped, poorly dis- 
ciplined and poorly led. 

The -fighting soon began, and the superiority of the 
invaders instantly showed itself. Marshal MacMalion 
was forced back toward Chalons (slial-on'), with his army 
of 160,000 men, and Marshal Bazaine, after a furious 
struggle, was driven tumultuously behind the fortifications 
of Metz, to which the Germans immediately laid siege. 
Cooped up there, Bazaine could not help himself nor do 
France any good. Napoleon HI. ordered MacMalion to 
march to his relief, but the Germans kept him away, and it 
wasonly by desperate work that he managed to reach Sedan 
(suh-dang) in northeastern France, where he was attacked 
on the 1st of September and completely routed. MacMa- 
lion surrendered 80,000 prisoners of war and one of them 
was Napoleon TIL When the news reached Paris, the 
legislature declared the Emperor deposed and France a 
Kepublic. Thus the Second Empire was blotted out. 

The German armies advanced upon Paris and be- 
sieged it from September 19, 1870 to January 30, 1871, 
during which food became so scarce that the people lived 
on dogs, cats, rats, and finally ate the wild beasts in the 
Zoological Gardens. The weather was intensely cold, 
and the trees in the parks and boulevards were cut down 
to keep the wretched inhabitants from freezing. A pro- 
visional government had been organized for defense, but 
the end was inevitable. When it became a choice be- 
tween surrender and starvation, a preliminary treaty of 
peace was signed February 26, 1871, by which France 
agreed to give up German-speaking Lorraine, the fortress 



The Second Empire. 



311 



of Metz, all of Alsace, and to pay an indemnity of |1,- 
000,000,000, a German army to remain on French soil 
until the debt was paid. 

Paris was further humiliated on the 1st of March by 
the sight of a large German force entering the city and 
passing imder the magnificent arch, which Napoleon the 
Great had reared to commemo- 
rate his victories. 

But the cup of misery was 
not yet full. The German army 
which had occupied Versailles 
withdrew, and the provisional 
government which Thiers {tee- 
air') had established, moved to 
that city. Then the Commun- 
ists closed the gates of Paris, 
and uniting with the National 
Guard, took possession of the 
city and held it for more than 
two months. Proud Paris was 
given over to plunder, violence 
and crime, like that under the Reign of Terror. The 
Communists believe in no government, and insist that no 
man has the right to own property, which ought to be 
held in common. The churches were closed, the nuns and 
sisters of charity driven out, and the Vendome (von- 
dome') Column erected in honor of the wars of Napoleon 
I. was pulled down. 

These men declared that France had been betrayed 
by the Thiers government, because of the treaty it signed 




Marshal Bazaine. 



312 Young People's History of France. 

with Germany. They made several attacks on Versailles 
and a number were taken prisoners. The Communists 
seized the aged Archbishop Darboy, and more than sixty 
priests and public citizens, under the pretense of holding 
them as hostages. Instead of doing so, they deliberately 
murdered every one. 

As was always the case, the most bloody and merci- 
less of the Communists were the women, and hundreds 
of boys, some of them of tender years, followed their 
frightful examples. 

The Versailles government was not powerful enough 
to move against Paris until the return of the exchanged 
soldiers. Then, on the 21st of May, Marshal MacMahon 
succeeded in forcing his way into the city. In their mad 
fury the Commune determined to destroy Paris. In 
the Cathedral of Notre Dame and other churches, barrels 
of gunpowder were piled and men, women and children 
with cans of petroleum to feed the flames ran pell mell 
to all the public buildings and drenched them with the 
inflammable fluid. The troops, by the hardest work, pre- 
vented this wholesale destruction, but the palace of the 
Tuileries, the Hotel de Ville (d-vili) and many other 
structures were laid in ashes. 

The Communists were routed from their barricades 
and gathered for their last stand in the principal ceme- 
tery, where they were mowed down with musketry and 
grapeshot. In the brief, horrible reign of the Commune, 
fully 20,000 people were killed and property to the value 
of a hundred million dollars was destroyed. 

Through the aid of friends. Empress Eugenie managed 
to escape from the city, or she would have been one of 



The Second Empire. 



313 



the first victims to the fury of the populace. Napoleon 

III. was held in royal state as a prisoner for a time, and 

upon his release 

went to England, for 

he was too wise ever 

to set foot on the 

soil of France again. 

He died from the 

effects of a surgical 

operation in 1873. 

Prince Napoleon 
completed his mili- 
tary education in 
England, and en- 
tered her service in 
the war against the 
Zulus in South Af- 
rica. One day he 
and some of his 
brother officers were 
surprised by a party 
of ■ savages in the 
bush. The young 
man while running 
beside his horse and 




Summary Execution of a Communist. 



trying to mount, was pierced by the assagais or spears 
of the pursuing Zulus and killed. At this writing (1901) 
his mother, a gray, aged, decrepit and broken-hearted 
woman is still living, and none can think of her past and 
present without a feeling of sympathy, for the contrast 
could not be greater nor more sorrowful. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

THE THIRD REPUBLIC 1870. 

Committee of Public Defense — Thiers — MacMahon — 

Grevy — Carnot — Perier — Faiire — Loubert. 

(1870-1901). 

THE Commune having been stamped out, the question 
was as to what government should assume charge 
of France. The National Assembly was divided. The 
Legitimists wished that the direct line of Bourbons should 
be summoned to the throne in the person of Count Cham- 
bord, grandson of Charles X., called by his friends Henry V. 
The Orleanists desired the restoration of the limited 
monarchy in the person of the Count of Paris, grandson 
of Louis Philippe, or the Duke d' Aumale son of Louis 
Philippe, while the Bonapartists favored the young Prince 
Napoleon. 

Although the Assembly was often involved in contro- 
versy with its president, L. A. Thiers, it was so generally 
felt that he was the strongest man, that on the last day 
of August, 1871, he was elected President of the Republic 
to last as long as the present Assembly. 

The presence of the German soldiers on the soil of 
France was so irritating that the nation resolved to pay 

314 



The Third Republic. 



315 



the indemnity at the earliest possible day and thus rid 
themselves of them. When subscriptions were asked, 
they were made far in excess of the vast sum needed, 
and the last Ger- 
man soldier left the 
country in Septem- 
ber, 1873. 

A bill for the 
tliorou2i:h reoroi:ani- 
zation of the army 
was passed in July, 
1872, for the tre- 
mendous lesson of 
the last war was 
burned into the 
mind of every one. 
At the close of the 
following year, a 
court martial sen- 
tenced Marshal 
Bazaine to death 
for the surrender of 
Metz, but this sen- 
tence was changed 
to imprisonnient for a term of twenty years. AYith the 
aid of his wife, he effected his escape in 1874, and some 
years later died abroad. 

The Bonapartist cause was made hopeless in 1873 by 
the death of Napoleon III. After a long and earnest 
debate, the Assembly on May 24, 1873, voted against 




Louis Adolphe Thiers. 



316 Young People's History of France. 

the views of Thiers, who thereupon resigned, and on the 
same day Marshal MacMahon was elected by the Assem- 
bly to succeed him as President. He was an honest old 
soldier and not a politician and commanded the respect 
of all. In answer to his request for an extension of 
powers, his term in November, 1873, was made seven 
years, but the warring factions were unable to decide for 
a long time whether the future form of government 
should be that of a republic or monarchy. On the 
30th of January, 1875, however, after a prolonged 
and bitter discussion, it was. decided by a majority of 
one vote that it should be a republic. Then a permanent 
constitution was framed, by which the legislative power 
was vested in the assemblies — the Senate and Chamber of 
Deputies. The Senate was to be composed of three hun- 
dred members, two hundred and twenty-five of whose 
terms were nine years, one-third retiring by rotation 
every three years. The remaining seventy-five were to 
be chosen for life by the National Assembly. The mem- 
bers of the Chamber of Deputies were to be elected by 
universal suffrage and were dependent upon the popula- 
tion. Thus you will notice that the organization was 
similar to our Senate and House of Eepresentatives. 
The term of the President was fixed at seven years. His 
office resembled that of a constitutional monarch, and in 
some respects that of the President of the United States. 
The sessions of the governing bodies of France have 
often been stormy and exciting and there have been much 
wrangling and diversity of views. The elections of 1879 
convinced President MacMahon that it was impossible to 



The Third RGpublic. 



317 



maintain harmonious relations among the parties and on 
January 30 of that year he resigned his office. On the 
same day, the Senate and Chamber, sitting as the Na- 
tional Assembly elected M. 
Jules Grevy (gra-ve'), a moder- 
ate Republican as his successor 
for the full term of seven years. 
Among the important acts of 
his administration were the for- 
cible closing of the establish- 
ments of the Jesuits and others, 
to the number of nearly three 
hundred, and the passage of 
la.ws for the extension of public 
education. 

In the spring of 1881,. a 
military force from Algeria en- 
tered Tunis under the pretext 
of punishing the tribes on the Tunisian frontier for depre- 
dations ; and, occupying the capital, compelled the Bey 
to sign a treaty by which he placed his country under 
the protectorate of France. Little or no protest was 
made against the act by the other Powers with the excep- 
tion of Italy who was so indignant that she has as yet 
not fully recovered from it. 

In 1879, the Khedive of Egypt became involved in 
financial trouble and the financial administration of his 
country was placed in the hands of two controllers, ap- 
pointed by England and France respectively, for the pro- 
tection of the citizens of those countries who were the 




Count Von Moltke. 



318 Young People's History of France. 

holders of Egyptian bonds. In 1882, the difficulties be- 
tween the Khedive and his council caused England and 
France to determine to intervene in behalf of their threat- 
ened interests, hut after lengthy negotiations, the inter- 
vention was left to England alone and France was ousted 
from all share in the Dual Control. 

In 1882, France resented the encroachments upon her 
rights in northwestern Madagascar by the leading tribe 
of that island. In the following year, the French 
Admiral commanding the squadron in the Indian Ocean, 
demanded that the northwestern part of Madagascar 
should be placed under a French protectorate, and that a 
large indemnity should be paid. The demand was refused 
by the Queen, whereupon the city of Tomatave was 
bombarded. In the summer of that year, the natives 
signally defeated a French expedition, and a treaty was 
signed by which the foreign relations of the island were 
placed under the control of France, while the Queen paid 
certain claims and retained control of internal affairs. 

By a treaty made in August, 1883, with Annam, a 
province was ceded to France and a French protectorate 
was established over Annam and Tonquin, though hostili- 
ties did not cease for a long time afterward. Difficulties 
with China led to a treaty in June, 1885, which arranged 
for the evacuation of Formosa by the Chinese, with the 
future diplomatic relations of Annam to be through 
France, which was to have virtual control over that and 
Tonquin. These several affairs did not result satisfactorily 
to France and eventually led to the downfall of the min- 
istry which ordered them. 






The Third Republic. 



319 



There was no end to the wrangling and political dis- 
putes. Scandals came to the surface and the honesty of 
many men in high places was attacked. In 1887, 
M. Daniel Wilson, son-in-law of 
M. Grevy, was proven to have 
been concerned in selling public 
offices for money. The attempts 
of M. Grevy to shield his rela- 
tive brought about his own en- 
forced retirement. He was so 
hard pressed by the chambers 
that he resigned the presidency 
of the Republic on December 2, 
1887. 

After many attempts at 
election, the parties united 
upon Marie F. S. Carnot {kar- 
noh'), a Republican of high 
integrity, who commanded the respect of the country. 
He was a distinguished engineer and a grandson of the 
Carnot, who as minister of war, rendered good services 
to the armies during the French Revolution. 

On May 5, 1889, the one-hundredth anniversary of the 
Assembly of the States-General was celebrated with im- 
pressive ceremonies at Versailles. The Universal Exhibi- 
tion at Paris, the greatest ever held in France down to 
that time, was formally opened the following day by 
President Carnot. 

France has always been a hot-bed of anarchists and plot- 
ters against all forms of government, and they committed 




Marshal MacMahon. 



32.0 Young People's History of France. 

many outrages in Paris in 1892. One of the execrable 
miscreants effected the assassination of President Carnot 
at Lyon on June 24, 1894. Jean Casimir Perier {pa-re' ai) 
was elected his successor three days later, and held office 
until January 17, 1895, when he was succeeded by Felix 
Francois Faure ifoJir), who in turn was succeeded by 
Emile Loubet (loo-hay') elected February 18, 1899. 

You remember the great achievement of Ferdinand 
de Lesseps in the construction of the Suez Canal. The 
same distinguished engineer undertook to build a canal 
across the Isthmus of Panama, but in 1889, the company 
went to pieces after squandering the enormous sum of 
$350,000,000, most of which were subscriptions from 
people who could ill afford to bear the loss. The attempts 
to revive the hopeless scheme resulted in disclosures 
which showed that gigantic frauds had been committed, 
scores of trusted officials having made enormous fortunes 
by the most shameless stealing, Avhich involved all classes. 
The mention of the Panama Scandals to-day will cause 
any honest Frenchman to blush. 

The Dreyfus scandal is of such recent date, that all 
are acquainted with its particulars. In January, 1895, 
Captain Dreyfus {di^e'fus) was condemned for treason and 
sentenced to life imprisonment on the horrible South 
American waste known as Devil's Island. It gradually 
became so apparent that he was the victim of despicable 
wretches in high station, that the government was forced 
in very shame to bring him back to France and give him 
a new trial, the result of which in 1899, was his complete 
exoneration from guilt and his restoration to his family 
and friends. 



The Third E,epublic. 



321 



Another result was the proof that among tlie highest 
officers in the army and of the government, inchiding 
even the judiciary, were as villainous a set of rascals as 
ever went unhanged. Dreyfus 
was a Jew and his ruin was 
plotted by others who thought 
it necessary in order to hide 
their own infamous crimes. 

France joined the leading 
civilized nations in suppressing 
the formidable "Boxer" upris- 
ing in China in the summer of 
1900, and acted a prominent 
part in the adjustment of the 
troubles in the Celestial Empire 
in which the whole world was 
interested. 

France has long; held the 
foremost rank in science, literature and invention. In 
^.he last-named field, she has never been surpassed, while 
her achievements in science have benefited the whole 
civilized world. Froissart's chronicles of the fourteenth 
century are a vivid picture of the wars of the English 
and French. Comines, who wrote in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, w^as one of the first true historians of his country. 
The writings of Rabelais, Ronsard, Amyot, and Montaigne 
added force and terseness to the French language. The 
Academie Francaise was established in 1634, and during 
that period, Corneille brought French tragedy to its high- 
A est point of grandeur in the classic style of the drama 
31 — Ellis' ^7'an(?' 




M. Jules Grevy. 



322 



Young People's History of France. 



which he had adopted. The reign of Louis XIY. was 
made luminous by a series of great names in every 
branch of literature. Despite the frivolity of the life in 

the higher classes of France, 
no age produced more vigor- 
ous writers or original think- 
ers. Montesquieu, Voltaire, 
Rousseau and Buffon, were men 
of genius, but irreligious in 
their writings, which had much 
to do in bringing about the 
Revolution. 

A period of intellectual tor- 
por succeeded the Revolution, 
which improved only to a slight 
extent under the Empire. A 
reaction took place with the 
productions of the new roman- 
tic school as shown by Madame 
de Stael and Chateaubriand, which were soon followed by 
numerous others, either of the same, or the rival classical 
school. Among the numerous young and original writers 
who acquired reputation in poetry, dramatic art and fiction, 
were Victor Hugo, the greatest of modern French poets; 
Alfred de Vigny, Frederic Soulie and A. Dumas, the elder, 
an amazingly prolific novel writer. George Sand (Madame 
Dudevant) was one of the most eloquent authors of the 
country. The vivid portraiture of the concealed miseries 
and depravities of social life gave to Eugene Sue a na- 
tional reputation. Among other famous writers of fiction 




Voltaire. 



The Third Kepublic. 



323 



may be named Balzac, A. de Mussat, with his dazzling 
richness of fancy; Jules Sandau, who wrote in conjunc- 
tion with George Sand^ the historian Merimee ; Theophile 
Gautier; Paul de 
Kock ; Edmond Ab- 
u t ; Dumas the 
younger; Gautier and 
De Banville, Jules 
Yerne; Daudet and 
many others who are 
continually coming 
into notice. The al- 
most universal blot 
upon French fiction 
lies in its intrigue and 
appeal to the baser 
passions of our nature. 
It is the very anti- 
podes of the works of 
such writers as Sir 
Walter Scott, Wash- 
ington Irving, George 
Eliot, Hawthorne, 
Fenimore Cooper, and the foremost English and American 
authors. 

The chief French historians who have gained a world- 
wide reputation are Barante, Guizot, Thierry, Sismondi, 
the late^President L. A. Thiers, Louis Blanc, Lamartine, 
Villemain, Michelet, Martin and Taine. 

The great scientific writers of modern France include 




Market Place and Garden of the Temple, Paris. 



324 



Young People's History of France. 



in metaphysics and political economy, Victor Con sin, 
Jouffroy, Simon and Lamennais ; and in socialism Comte, 
St. Simon^ Fourier and Leroux ; while Chevalier, De 

Tocqueville, Bonald and Lafer- 
riere are famed for their bril- 
liant exposition of the jurispru- 
dence of nations and the social 
and political condition of 
democracy throughout the 
world. 

New light has been thrown 
on the origin of races and lan- 
guages by the profound re- 
searches into Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics and Semitic literature 
made by Champollion, Sylvestre 
de Sacy, Kenan, Remusat and 
Stanislas Julian. Among the 
greatest mathematicians are 
D'Alembert, Laplace, Lagrange, Biot, Ampere and Arago. 
There are a host of great discoverers in natural history and 
its kindred sciences, the more distinguished of whom are: 
Cuvier, Geoffroy and Isidore St. Hilaire, Blainville, Jus- 
sieu, D'Orbigny, Haiiy, Gay-Lussac, Elie de Beaumont, 
Milne-Edwards, and Brongniart. No country has ever 
produced so many elegant essayists and literary critics as 
France, whose language lends itself more readily to the 
concise, graceful and forcible style of epigrammatic writ- 
ing and admits of the highest polish and idiomatic 
terseness. 




Rousseau. 



The Third Eepublic. 



325 



At this writing (1901), the annual salary of the 
President of the French Republic is $120,000, with an 
allowance of the same amount for expenses. The num- 
ber of Senators is 300, of whom 250 are Republicans and 
the remainder representatives of various shades of 
opposition. 

There are 585 Deputies among whom are represented 
every possible shade of political sentiment, with the Re- 
publicans the most numerous. 

The following are the latest statistics : 



COUNTEIES. 


Population. 


Square Miles. 


Capitals. 


Prance & Colonies 


63,166,967 


3,357,856 


Paris 


France 


38,517,975 


204,177 


Paris 


Colonies 


21,448,064 


2,923,679 




Algeria 


3,870,000 


260,000 


Algiers 


Senegal, etc. 


183,237. 


580,000 


St. Louis 


Tunis 


1,500,000 


45,000 


Tunis 


Cayenne 


26,502 


46,697 


Cayenne 


Cambodia 


1,500,000 


32,254 


Saigon 


Cochin- China 


1.223,000 


13,692 




Tonquin 


12,000,000 


60,000 


Hanoi 


New Caledonia 


62,752 


7,624 


Noumea 


Tahiti 


12,800 


462 




Sahara 


1,100,000 


1,550,000 




Madagascar 


3,500,000 


230,000 


Antananarivo. 



SOVEREIGNS OF FRANCE. 



Merovingians. 



A. D. 
418. 

428. 
447. 
458. 
481. 

511.- 

534. 

548. 
658. 

661.- 

575. 
593. 
594. 
613. 



Pharamond. 
Clodion. 
Merovseus. 
Childeric I. 
Clovis I. 

Thierry I. (Austrasia or Metz.) 
Clodomir. (Orleans.) 
Childebertl. (Paris.) 
Clotaire I. (Soissons or Nuestria.) 
Theodebert I. (Metz.) 
Theodebald. (Metz.) 
Clotaire I. (France. ) 
Caribert. (Paris.) 
Gentran. (Orleans and Bnr- 

gnndy.) 
Chilperic I . ( Soissons. ) 
Sigebert I. (Austrasia.) 

Childebert II. (Austrasia.) 
" " (Burgundy.) 

Clotaire II. (Soissons.) 
** " (France.) 



A. D 
595. 

628. 
638. 
656. 
660. 
670. 
673. 
691. 
695. 
711. 
715. 



f Thierry II. (Burgundy.) 
I Theodebert II. (Austrasia.) 

Dagobert I. 

Sigebert II. (Austrasia.) 
Clovis II. (Soissons and Bur- 
gundy. ) 
Clovis II. (France.) 

r Clotaire III. (Soissons and Bur- 

i gundy.) 

! Childeric II. ( Austrasia ) 

Childeric II. (France.) 
Dagobert II. (Austrasia.) 
- Thierry III. ( Soissons and Bur- 
gundy. ) 

Clovis III. (Nuestria and 
Burgundy. ) 

Childebert III. (Nuestria and 
Burgundy.) 

Dagobert III. (Nuestria and 

Burgundy.) 
Chilperic II. (Nuestria and 

Burgundy.) 

327 



328 



Sovereigns of France. 



A. D. 

717. 

720. 



Clotaire IV. (Nuestria and 
Burgundy. ) 

Thierry IV. (Nuestria and 
Burgundy. ) 



A. D. 
737. 

742. 



( Interregnum ) ( Nuestria and 
Burgundy ) 

Childeric III. (Nuestria and 
Burgundy. ) 



Caelovingians. 



A. D 

752. 

768. 

814. 
840. 
877. 
879. 
882. 



Pepin. (The Short.) 

Charles I. Charlemagne. (The 

Great. ) 
Louis I. [Le Dehonnaire.) 
Charles II. (The Bald.) 
Louis II. (The Stammerer. ) 
Louis III. and Carloman. 
Carloman. ( Alone. ) 



A. D. 

884. 

887. 

898. 

922. 

923. 

936. 

954. 

981. 



Charles the Fat. (Emperor. ) 

Eudes. 

Charles III. (The Simple. ) 

Robert T. 

Rudolph. (Or, Raoul ) 

Louis IV. ( Z)' Outre mer. ) 

Lothaire. 

Louis V. {Le Faineant.) 



A. D. 

987. 

996. 
1031. 
1060. 
11U8. 
1137. 
1180. 
1223. 



A. D. 

1328. 
1350. 
1364. 
1380. 



Hugh Capet. 

Robert II. 

Henry I. 

Philip I 

Louis VL (The Fat.) 

Louis VIL (The Young.) 

Philip II. (Augustus.) 

Louis VI IF. (The Lion.) 



Capetians. 

A. D. 

1226. 

1270. 
1285. 
1314. 

1316. 
1316. 
1322. 



Louis IX. (St. Louis. ) 
Philip IIL (The Bold.) 
Philip IV. (The Fair.) 
Louis X. ( The Headstrong. ) 

(Hutin.) 
John I. 

Philip V. (The Long.) 
Charles IV. (The Fair.) 



House of Valois. 



Philip VI {De Valois.) 
John II. (The Good.) 
Charles V. (The Wise.) 
Charles VI. 



1422. Charles VII. 



A. D. 

1461 
1483. 
1498. 
1515 
1547. Henry II. 



Louis XL 
Charles VIII. 
Louis XIL 
Francis I. 



Sovereigns of France. 



329 



A. D. 

1559. Francis II. 

1560. Charles IX. 



A. D. 

1574. Henry III. 



House of Bourbon. 



A. D. 

1589. Henry IV. (Of Navarre.) 

1610. Louis XIII. (The Just.) 

1643. Louis XIV. {Le Grand.) 



A. D. 

1715. Louis XV. (The Well Beloved . 

1774 Louis XVI. 

1793. (Only nominally a king. ) 



The Republic. 



A. D. 

1792. Convention. 

1795. Directory. 

A. D. 

1804. Napoleon I. 

1814. Louis XVIII. (King.) 



A. D. 

1799. Consulate. 



The Empiee. 



A. D. 

1815. Napoleon I. (Again.) 



A. D. 
1815. 



Louis XVIII. 



House of Bourbon Restored. 



A. D. 

1824. 



Charles X. 



A. D. 
1870. 
1871. 
1873. 

1879. 



House of Orleans. 



A. D. 

1830. Louis Philippe I. 



A. D. 

1848. 



Republic. 



The Second Empire. 
A. D. 
1852. Napoleon III. (Charles Louis.) 



The Third Republic. 



Committee of Public Defense. 
L. A. Thiers. 
Marshal MacMahon. 
Jules Grevy. 



A. D. 

1887. 
1894. 
1895. 
1899. 



Marie F. S. Carnot. 
Jean Casimir Perier. 
Felix Francois Faure. 
Emile Loubet. 



INDEX. 



Aboukir Bay, 256 

About, Edmond, 323 

Acre, 76 

Adige, The, 252 

Adriatic, The, 73 

Africa, 15, 40, 90, 256 

Age of Reason, The, 238 

Agincourt, Battle of, 114, 116 

Agnadello, Battle of, 138 

Aix, 16 

Aix-la-Chapelle, 46 

Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 188 

Ajaccio, 246, 247 

Albert of Austria, 96 

Albigenses, The, 85, 86, 88, 154 

Aleppo, 78 

Alexandria, 254, 256 

Alexis, Emperor, 72 

Algiers, 317 

Algeria, 285 

Alice, Queen, 84 

Alps, The, 15, 73, 250, 261, 264 

Alsace, 176, 311 

Anagni, 96 

Amalfi, 66 

America, 13, 55, 150, 160, 181, 184 

American Congress, The, 206 

American Revoliltion, The, 205 

Amiens, Peace of, 262 

Ampere, 324 

Amsterdam, 180 

Amyot, 321 

Anet, 171 

Anglers, 173 

Anjou, 85 

Anjou, Dukes of, 114, 160 



Annam, 318 

Anne of Austria, 178 

Anne, wife of Henry I., 63 

Antioch, 73 

Antoine, King of Navarre, 151 

Aquitanians, The. 19, 44 

Arabia, 38 

Arabs, The, 68, 79 

Arago, 324 

Aragon, 95 

Areola, 252 

Argues Battle of, 171 

Arras, 168 

Arthur, King, 80 

Arverni, The, 16 

Ascalon, 74, 76 

Asia, 72, 74, 256 

Atlantic, The, 190 

Attila, 27, 28 

Auerstadt, Battle of, 266 

Aumale, Duke d', 314 

Aurillac, 63 

Austerlitz, Battle of, 265 

Austrasia, 32, 36 

Austria, 176, 180, 182, 185, 188, 227, 

233, 249, 264, 265, 270, 275, 304 
Austrian Succession, War of the, 187, 

188 
Auvergne, 63 
Avignon, 86, 111 



Baltic, The, 18, 270 
Balue, Cardinal, 130 
Balzac, Honore, 323 
Banville, Theodore de, 323 



331 



332 



Index. 



Barante, 323 

Barras, 249 

Bastile, The, 184, 214, 216, 219 

Battle of the Nations, The, 275 

Battle of the Spurs, The, 144 

Bavaria, 182, 188 

Bayard, 143, 144, 145, 146 

Bazaine, Marshal, 310, 315 

Beaumont, Eric de, 324 

Belgians, The, 19 

Belgium, 182, 188, 234, 244, 252, 293 

Benedetti, Count, 309 

Beresina, The, 274 

Berlin, 266 

Berlin Decree, The, 266 

Berri, Dukes of, 112, 281, 290 

Bertha, Queen, 61, 62 

Blot, 324 

Biscay, Bay of, 164 

Bismarck, Count, 308 

Bituitus, 16 

Black Death, The, 104 

Black Prince, The, 103, 106 

Blanc, Louis, 323 

Blanville, 324 

Blenheim, Battle of, 182 

Blois, 166, 173 

Blois, Count of, 73 

Bonald, 324 

Bonaparte, Caroline, 270 

Bonaparte, Charles Louis Napoleon, 

246, 292-298, 303-310, 313, 315 
Bonaparte, Jerome, 246, 268, 270 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 246, 268, 270 
Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon, 246, 266, 

270, 292 
Bonaparte, Lucien, 246, 258, 270 
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 246-257, 261- 

280, 292, 308 
Bonapartists, The. 288, 314 
Bondy, 224 

Boniface, Archbishop, 41 
Borgia, Caesar, 140 
Borgia, Lucretia, 140 
Borgia, Roderick, 140 



Borodino, Battle of, 274 
Bourbon, Cardinal de, 170 
Bourbon, Dukes of, 116, 167 
Bourbon, House of, 167-232, 278-287 
"Boxers," The, 24, 321 
Bourges, 117 
Bouvines, Battle of, 86 
Bread Riots, The, 217 
Brie, 130 
Brienne, 247 
Brittany, 112 
Brittany, Dukes of, 128 
Brongniart, 324 
Brunehaut, 36 
Brunswick, Duke of, 227 
Brussels, 188, 223 
Buffon, 322 

Burgoyne, General, 206 
Buonaparte, Carlo, 246 
Burgundians, The, 19, 27, 32 
Burgundy, 36, 59, 64, 128, 130 
Burgundy, Dukes of, 112, 128, 130, 
132 



Caen, 82 

Caesar, Julius, 19, 20, 24, 45 

Cairo, 256 

Calabria, 66 

Calais, 103, 104, 108, 114 

Calvin, John, 154, 157 

Calvinists, The, 152, 156, 157 

Campo Formio, Treaty of, 252, 262 

Canada, 190 

Cape of Good Hope, 307 

Capet, Hugh, 58, 59, 84 

Capetians, The, 58-99 

Capitals (French), 325 

Caribert, 36 

Carloman, 41, 42 

Carlovingians, The, 42-57 

Carnot, M. F. S., 319, 320 

Catalaunian Plains, The, 27 

Catholics, The, 152-170, 193 

Celts, The, 14 



Index. 



333 



Cinq Mars, 176 

Chalons, 27, 310 

Chambord, Count, 314 

Chambray, Peace of, 148 

Champagne, 130, 247 

Charlemagne, 42-55, 80 

Charles Martel, 40, 41 

Charles III., 56, 57, 58 

Charles IV., 98, 99, 167 

Charles V., 110, 111, 214 

Charles VI., 112, 116, 117, 138, 168 

Charles VII., 117, 118, 120, 122, 124, 

Charles VIIL, 133, 134, 136, 138, 144, 

150 
Charles IX., 158, 160, 162, 164 
Charles X., 283, 284, 285, 286, 287 
Charles I. of England, 178 
Charles II. of England, 180 
Charles of Anjou, 94, 95 
Charles of Valois, 98 
Charles V. of Germany, 142, 146, 148, 

152 182 
Charles the Bold, 126, 128, 130, 132 
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, 151 
Champollion, 324 
Chateaubriand, 322 
Chevalier, 324 
Childebertl., 34 
Childeric I., 28 
ChildericIII., 41 
Chilperic, 36 

China, 13, 104, 308, 318, 321 
Chivalry, Days of. The, 80 
Cholera, Epidemic of, The, 290, 291 
Christians, Persecutions of, 62 
Cleodald, 34 
Clermont, 69 • 
Clive, Lord, 192 
Clodion, 28 
Clodomir, 32, 34 
Clotairel., 34, 36 
Clotaire II., 36 
Clovis. 28, 30, 32, 126 
Colbert, 178 



CoJigny, Admiral, 156, 158, 160, 162, 

166 
College of Three Languages, The, 170 
Colouna Family, The, 96 
Columbus, Christopher, 55, 150 
Column of July, The, 214 
Comines, 321 

Communists, The, 311, 312 
Compiegne, 124 
Comte, 324 
Concini, Marshal, 173 
Conde, Princes of, 151, 156, 157, 158, 

159, 174 
Conradin, 94 
Constance, Queen (wife of Louis VII.), 

84 
Constance, Queen (wife of Robert II.), 

62, 63 
Constantine, Emperor, 26, 50 
Constantinople, 40, 73, 126 
Constitution, The, 219, 220 
Constitutionalists, The, 226, 289 
Consulate, The, 259-263 
Convention, The, 233-246 
Corday, Charlotte, 238 
Cordova, 63 
Corneille. 321 
Cornwallis, Lord, 206 
Corsica, 246 
Couisin, Victor, 324 
Coup d'etat. The, 296, 297 
Crecy, 114 

Crecy, Battle of, 100, 102, 103, 106 
Credit Foncier, The, 301 
Credit Mobilier, The, 301 
Crimean War, The, 303 
Crusades, The, 66, 68, 69, 78, 79 
Crusade, First, 69, 72, 76 
Crusade, Second, 72, 76 
Crusade, Third. 76, 84 
Crusade, Fourth, 76 
Crusade, Fifth, 76 
Crusade, Sixth, 76 
Crusade, Seventh, 76 



334 



Index. 



Crusade, Eighth, 76 
Cumberland, Duke of, 188 
Cuvier, 324 

Dagobeet I , 36, 37 

Damascus, 78 

Damietta, b8 

Danes, The, 55 

Danton, 226, 230, 234, 242 

Darboy, Archbishop, 312 

Daudet, Alphonse, 323 

D'Alembert, 324 

D'Orbigny, 324 

Delabrosse, 92, 94 

De Ruyter, Admiral, 180 

Desmoulins, Camille, 213, 240 

De Thou, 176 

Dettingen, Battle of, 188 

Devil's Island 320 

Dinwiddle, Governor, 190 

Directory, The, 244-252, 257, 258 

Dreyfus Scandal, The, 320, 321 

Druids, The, 15, 16, 19 

Du Guesclin, 110, 112 

Dumas, Alex., 322 

Dumas, Alex., Jr., 323 

Edwakd I. of England, 95 
Edward II. of England, 99 
Edward III. of England, 100, 103, 

104, 108 
Edward IV. of England, 128, 130 
Edward the Confessor, 64 
Egypt, 40, 78, 253, 256. 257, 262 
Elba, Island of, 275, 276, 280 
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen, 83 
Empire, First, The, 264-278 
Empire. Second, The, 299-313 
End of the World, The, 59, 60, 66 
England, 14, 55, 64, 100,111, 134, 146, 
180, 181, 185, 190, 191, 192, 206, 
248, 249, 253, 256, 262, 264, 266, 
268. 27<', 271, 272, 275, 284, 287, 
292, 294 



Essex, Earl of, 171 

Eugene, Prince, 182 

Eugenie, Empress, 307, 309, 312 

Exilles, 184 

Eylau, Battle of, 268 

Fauee, Felix Francois, 320 
Ferdinand VII. of Spain, 282 
Feudalism, 53, 54, 55, 200, 201, 202, 

203 
Field of the Cloth of Gold, The, 142 
Field of Mars, The, 219 
FJagellants, The, 106 
Flanders, 86, 96, 100, 180 
Flanders, Count of, 73 
Florence, 136 
Florida, 190 

Fontenoy, Battle of, 188 
Formosa, 318 
Fornova, Battle of, 144 
Fourier, 324 
France, Area of, 325 
France and Her Colonies, 325 
France, Early History of, 13-26 
France, Population of, 325 
Franche Comte, 180 
Francis I., 140, 142, 143 
Francis II., 149, 151, 154, 157 
Francis II. of Austria, 2<J7, 265, 271 
Franklin, Benjamin, 206 
Franks, The, 19, 27, 28, 32, 53, 74 
Fredegonde, 36 

Frederick Barbarossa Emperor 76 
Frederick the Great, 188, 192, 193 
Friedland, 268 
Froissart. 321 
Fronde, War of t^e, 178 

Gabigliano, The, 144 
Gaul, 13, 19, 20, 22, 26, 28, 53 
Gauls, The, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 27, 36 
Gautier. Theophile, 323 
Gay-Luspac, 324 
Gentran, 36 



Index. 



335 



George II., of England, 188 
Germany, 14, 36, 40, 45, 55, 70, 72, 

134, 180, 181, 182, 261, 304, 308, 

309, 312 
Girondists, The, 226, 234, 235 
Gisors, 84 

Goddess of Reason, The, 242 
Godfrey of Bouillon, 72, 73, 74, 76 
Granson, Battle of, 132 
Great Famine, The, 61 
Greece, 15, 284 
Greeks, The, 16, 20 
Greenland, 55 
Grevy, M. Jules, 317, 319 
Guanahani, Island of, 13 
Guienne, 95, 99, 100, 108, 164 
Guiscard, Robert, 64, 66 
Guiscard, Roger, 64, 66 
Guise, Dukes of, 149, 151, 158, 162, 

164, 166 
Guizot, 323 

Gunpowder, First use in battle of, 100, 
. 102 

Harfleur, 114 

Harold, King of England, 64 

Hastings, 64 

Hauy, 324 

Hebert, Jacques Rene, 242 

Henry I., 63, 64 

Henry II., 148, 149 

Henry III., 164, 166, 167 

Henry IV,, 160, 161, 166, 167, 170, 

171, 172, 173 
Henry V. of England, 114, 116, 117 
Henry VI. of England, 117, 124 
Henry VIII. of England, 138, 142 
Hohenlinden, 261 
Holland, 160, 180, 182, 185, 233 
Holy Alliance, The, 282 
Holy League, The, 138, 164, 166, 170, 
Holy Sepulchre, The, 68 
Huguenots, The, 152, 156, 158, 159, 

160, 162, 164, 170, 171, 176, 181, 

187, 193 



Huns, The, 27 

Hugo, Victor, 322 

Hundred Years' War, The, 100 

Hungary, 72 

Iceland, 55 

India, 192, 308 

Indians, The, 13, 14 

Inquisition, The, 62, 96 

Interdicts, 62, 96 

Isabella, Wife of Edward II. of En- 
gland, 99 

Isabelle of Bavaria, 116, 168 

Iser, The, 261 

Italy, 15, 16. 40, 41, 55, 96, 134, 138, 
152, 182 250, 265, 266, 296, 304 

Ivry, Battle of, 171 

Jacobins, The, 226, 228, 234, 235 

Jacquerie, The, 108 

James II. of England, 182 

James V. of Scotland, 151 

Jena, Battle of, 266 

Jerusalem, 68, 69, 72, 73, 74, 78 

Jesuits, The, 193, 194, 282, 285, 317 

Jews, The, 13, 63, 70, 98 

Joan of Arc, 119, 120. 122, 124, 126 

John II., The Good, 106, 108, 110 

John of Procida, 94 

John of Luxembourg, 124 

John of England, 85, 86 

Joseph, The Grey Cardinal, 176 

Josephine, Empress, 253, 271 

Jouflfroy, 324 

Jourdan, 249 

Joyous Entry, The, 218 

Julian, Stanislas, 324 

Jussieu, 324 

Khedive of Egypt, The, 317, 318 
Kleber, 257 
Knighthood, 80, 81 
Knights Hospitallers, 74 



336 



Index. 



Knights of St. John, 128 
Knights Templars, 74 
Kock, Paul de, 323 
Koran, The, 38 



Lafayette, 212, 213, 217, 228 
Laferriere, 324 
Lagrange, 324 
Lamartine, 323 
Lamennais, 324 
Laon, 58 
Laplace, 324 
La Vendee, 236 
Law, John, 185, 186, 187 
League of the Public Good, 126 
Legislative Assembly, Tlie, 226, 227 
Legitimists, The, 289, 290, 314 
Leipsic, 275 
Leopold, Prince, 308 
Leroux, 324 

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 307, 320 
Library of Paris, 110 
Liege, 128 
Lodi, Bridge of, 250 
Loire, The, 30, 55, 117, 118, 120, 235 
Lombards, The, 41, 42, 44 
Lombardy, 138, 250 
Lombardy, Iron Crown of The, 44 
London, 64 

Lorraine, 119, 156, 187, 310 
Lost Tribes, The, 13 
Loubet, Emile, 320 
Louis I., the Debonnaire, 52 
Louis V. , the Fool, 58 
Louis VI., the Fat, 82, 83 
Louis Vir., the Young, 83, 84 
Louis VIIL, the Lion, 86 
Louis IX., Saint Louis, 86, 88, 90, 92 
Louis X., the Headstrong, 96, 98 
Louis XL, 126, 128, 130, 132, 133, 168 
Louis XI r., 138, 140, 144 
Louis XIII., the Just, 173, 174 
Louis XIV., 176, 178, 180, 181, 182, 
184, 185, 207, 322 



Louis XV., 185, 187, 188, 190, 192, 

194, 200, 203, 204, 207 
Louis XVI., 200, 2U4, 205, 207, 208, 

209, 210, 212, 220, 227, 228, 230, 

232, 233, 246, 248, 278 
Louis XVII., 220, 223, 248, 276, 278 
Louis XVIII., 248, 276, 278, 282, 283 
Louis de Bourbon, 128 
Louis Philippe, 287, 288, 294 
Louisiana, 262 
Louvaire, 85 
Louvois, 178 

Louvre, The, 162, 173, 300 
Luneville, Treaty of, 262 
Luthur, Martin, 146, 152, 154 
Lutherans, The, 152, 154, 156 
Lyons, 158, 235 



MacMahon, Marshal, 310, 312, 316 

Madagascar, 318 

Mahomet, 38, 40 

Maine, 85, 190 

Maintenon, Madame de, 180, 185 

Malta, 253, 262 

Mamelukes, 88, 254 

Mansourah, 88 

Mantua, 252 

Mantua, Duke of, 184 

Man with the Iron Mask, The, 184 

Marat, 226, 230, 234, 236 

Marengo, Battle of, 261 

Marguerite of Valois, 160 

Maria Antoinette, 205, 212, 217, 220, 

227, 228, 240, 242 
Maria Louisa, 271 
Maria Theresa, 192, 205 
Marignano, Battle of, 142 
Marigny, 98 
Marius, 18 

Marlborough, Duke of, 182 
Marseilles, 247 
Martin, 323 
Matthioli, Count, 184 
Maurice of Saxony, 148, 152 



Index. 



do/ 



Maximilian of Austria. 306 

Mayors of the Palace, 36, 40 

Mecca, 38 

Medici, Catherine de, 149, 151 

Medici. Lorenzo de, 149 

Medici, Mary de, 173 

Medina 38 

Mediterranean, The, 55, 180, 253 

Menes, 14 

Mercantile Treaties, 132 

Merimee, Prosper. 323 

Merovseus, 28 

Merovingians, The, 27-42 

Metz 32, 149, 309, 310, 311, 315 

Mexico, Gulf of, 190 

Michelet, 323 

Middle Ages, End of the, 126 

Milan, 142, 250 

Milne, Edwards, 324 

Mirabeau, 212 222 

Mississippi Bubble, The, 186, 187 

Mississippi Valley, The, 190 

Modena, 252 

Mohammed II., 126 

Montaigne, 321 

Montcalm, General, 191, 192 

Montesquieu, 322 

Montfauoon, 94 

Moors, The, 46 

Morat, Battle of, 132 

Moreau, 249, 261, 262 

Moscow, 274 

Mound Builders, The 13 

Mount Tabor, 256 

Murat, General. 271 

Muskets, P^irst use of, 168 

Mussat, Alfred de, 323 

Nanci, Battle of, 132 
Nantes, 235 

Nant€S, Edict of, 171, 181, 193 
Naples, 66, 266, 270 
Napoleon I (see Bonaparte) 
Napoleon II., 271 
Napoleon III. (see Bonaparte) 
22— Ellis' France. 



Napoleon, Prince 313, 314 
Narbonue, 16 

National Assembly, The, 211. 212, 213 
Natioual Constituent Assembly, The, 

212. 216, 217, 218 
National Convention, The, 228, 230, 

238, 244 
National Guard, The, 213, 217, 2<J8, 

248, 249, 284 
Navariuo, Battle of, 284 
Navarre, 151 

Necker, 208, 209 210, 212 
Nelson, 256, 262, 264 
Netherlands The, 176, 266 
Netherlands, Austrian, The, 188 
Newfoundland, 192 
Ney, Marshal, 276. 280 
NiciB, Council of, 26 
Nicholas I., of Russia, 304 
Niemen, The. 272 
Nile, The. 88 

Normandy, 57 59, 64. 83, 85, 116 
Normandy, Duke of, 73 
Northmen or Normans, The, 55, 56, 

57, 58 
North Sea, The, 1 8, 55 
Norwegians, The, 55 
Notre Dame, Cathedral of, 264, 312 
Nuestria, 34, 36 

Odin, 19 

Omar, Mosque of, 73 

Orleans, 32, 36, 118, 120, 122, 158 

Orleans, Dukes of, 116, 185 

Orleans, House of, 287, 298 

Palais Royal, The, 214, 240 

Palermo, 66 

Palestine, 66, 72, 74, 76, 83, 90 

Panama Scandal, The, 320 

Paris, 20, 32, 34. 56, 59, 85, 94, 124, 
158, 170, 217, 218, 219, 224, 227, 
230 234, 238, 247, 276. 278, 290, 
292, 299, 300, 301, 302, 309, 310, 
311, 312, 319 



338 



Index. 



Paris, Count of, 314 

Paris, Siege of, 310 

Paris, Treaty of, 192 

Paris, Univeisity of, 167 

Parma, 252 

Passion Plav, The, 168 

Paul, The Apostle 22 

Pavia, 143 148 

Pedro of Arragon, 94 

Peninsular War, The, 268 

Pepin the Short, 41. 4 i 

Perier, Jean Casimir, b20 

Peter the Hermit, 68, 69, 70, 73 

Pevensey, 64 

Picardy, 164 

Pignerol, 184 

Pitt, William, 191 

Pharamond, 28 

Philip I., 64, 82 

Philip II. (Philip Augustus), 76, 84, 

85, 86 
Philip III , the Hardy, 92, 95 
Philip IV., the Fair, 95, 96, 98 
Philip v., the Long, 98 
Philip VI , de Valois, 99, 100 
Philip II., of Spain, 158, 171 
Philip v., of Spain, 182 
Philip Egalite, 287 
Philippa. Wife of Edward III. of 

England, 104 
Plains of Abraham, The, 192 
Plassy. 192 

Plaving Cards, Invention of, 168 
Po,The, 15 
Pocahontas, 104 
Poitiers. Battle of, 106 
Poitou, 85 
Poland, 187 

Pompadour, Madame de, 192 
Pope Boniface VIII , 96 
Pope Clement VI ,111 
Pope Clement VII , 146, 149 
Pope Clement XIV., 194 
Pope Gregory III., 41 
Pope Innocent III., 86 



Pope Leo TIL, 48, 50, 52 

Pope Leo X , 149 

PopeSixtusIV., 130 

Pope Sylvester II., 63 

Pope Urban II , 69 

Pope Urban VI., 110 

Portugal, 150, 268 

Printing, Invention of 132 

Protestants. 152, 159, 193 

Provence, Count of, 222 

Prussia, 192, 247, 233, 249, 266, 275, 

304 
Pyramids The, 254 
Pyrenees, The, 32, 40, 46, 85, 151, 

262, 268 



Quebec, 192 



Rabelais, 321 

Kandon, 112 

Reign of Terror, 248 

Remusat, 324 

Renaissance, The, 138 

Renan, 324 

Republic, The. 233-278 

Republic, The Third, 314-326 

Republicans The, 288, 290 

Retz, Cardinal de, 178 

Revolutionary Tribunal, The, 242 

Rheims, 30, 122 

Rhine, The 19, 27, 36, 44, 55, 180, 182, 

249, 262, 309 
Rhone, The, 55, 111, 208 
Richard I., of England, 76, 78, 84. 88 
Richelieu, Cardinal, 174, 176, 193 
Rivoli, 252 

Robert IE., the Pious, 59, 61, 63 
Robespierre, 212, 226, 230, 234, 242, 

244 
Roland, 46, 48 
Roland, M. 245 
Roland, Madame, 245, 246 
Rollo, 56, 57, 64 



Index. 



339 



Romans, The, 16, 20, 22, 27 

Kome, 15, 18, 19 20, 22, 26, 28, 134, 

146, 158, 253, 258. 270 
Roncesvalles, Pass of, 46. 48 
Roueu, 56, 82, 88, 116, 124 
Ronsard, 321 
Rousseau, 322 
Russia. 55, 248, 264, 265, 266, 268, 270, 

271, 272, 276, 284, 303 
Ryswick, Treaty of, 182 



Sacy, Sylvestre de, 324 

Saladin, 76. 77, 78 

Salic Law, 98. 99, luO 

Saud, George, 322 

Sandau, Jules, 323 

Saraceus, 40, 66 

Saratoga, 206 

Saul of Tarsus, 26 

Savonarola, 136 

Savoy, 250 

Saxe, Marshal de, 188 

Saxons, 44, 45, 46, 48 

Saxouy, 266 

Schism of the West, The, 111 

Scotland 100, 157 

Sebastopol, Siege of, 303 

Sedan, 310 

Seine, The, 20, 28, 55, 56, 290 

Sesia, The, 145 

Seven Years' War. The, 192 

Sicilian Vespers, Massacre of, The, 95 

Sicily, 66, 94, 95 

Sigebert, 36 

Simon, Jules, 324 

Sluggard Kings, The 37 

Sluys, Battle of, 100 

Soisson, 28 30, 34, 36 

Soulie, Frederic, 322 

Spaio, 15 40, 46, 55, 112, 134. 140, 

150, 152. 160, 182, 185, 198, 227, 

233, 268, 270, 282 
Spanish Succession. War of The, 182 
Stael, Madame de, 322 



Strasburg, 32, 292 
States-General, The, 210, 211 
Stuart, Mary (Queen of Scots), 151, 

156, 157 
St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 162 
St. Cloud, Palace of 35 
St. Denis, 42 

St. Germain, Treaty of, 159 
St. Gervaise, 82 
St. Helena, Island of, 278, 308 
St. Hilaire, 324 
St. Marguerite, 18-* 
St. Maria, Church of, 52 
St. Mars, M. de, 184 
St. Pierre, 103 

St. Peter's, Cathedral of, 42, 48 
St. Simon. 324 
Sue, Eugene. 322 
Suez Caual, The, 307, 320 
Sully, Duke of, 172, 173 
Sweden, 180 266. 275 
Switzerland, 258, 265 
Syria, 78, 256 



Taine. 323 

Temple, The, 228 

Theobald of Biois, 84 

Thierry, Augustin, 323 

Thierry I., 32 

Thierry III., 41 

Thiers, L. A., .311, 314, 316, 323 

Third Estate, The, 96. 210, 211, 212 

Thirty Years' War, The, 176, 178 

Thor, 19 

Thrace. 73 

Tilsit, Peace of, 268 

Tocqueville de, 324 

Tomatave, 318 

Touquin, 318 

Toulon. 235 247 

Toulouse, Counts of, 73, 86, 88 

Touraine, 98 

Tours, 40, 158 

Tours, Battle of, 41 



O'tV) 



Index. 



Trafalgar, Battle of, 264 
Troyes, Treaty of, 116 
Truce of God, The, 61 
Tuileries, The, 248, 312 
Tunis, 90, 317 
Turgot, 207, 208 
Turkey, 284, 303, 304 
Turks, 68, 72, 126 

IJlm, 265 

United States, The, 206, 262 

Utrecht, Treaty of, 182 

Valois, House of, 99-166 
Van Tromp, Admiral, 180 
Varennes, 226 
Vatican, The, 253, 258 
Venice, 143 
Verdun, 226 
Verdun, Treaty of, 55 
Vermandois, Count of, 73 
Verne, Jules, 323 
Verona, 252 

Versailles, 206, 212, 213, 217, 218,311, 
319 



Victoria of England, Queen, 178 
Vienna, 252 265 , 

Vienna, Congress of, 276 
Viguy, Alfred de, 322 
Villemain, 323 
Virginia, 190 
Visigoths, 19,27, 32 
Voltaire, 322 
Von Moltke, Count, 308 



Wage AM, Battle of 270 
Walter the Penniless, 69, 70 
Washington, George, 198, 212 
Wellington, Duke of, 268, 278, 280 
Westminster Abbey, 64 
William the Conqueror, 64, 82 
William I., of Germany, 308 
William, Prince of Orange, 180, 182 
Wilson M Daniel, 319 
Wolfe, General, 192 
Wolsey, Cardinal, 142 
World's Expositions, 301, 302, 319 



YOEKTOWN, 206 



ylLTEMUS' ILLUSTRATED 

YOUNG PEOPLE'S 
HISTORIES^ ^ ^ 

By Edward S. Ellis, A.M. 



These volumes are written with all the fascinating- skill, 
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have won world-wide fame for Mr. KHis, who is confessedly 
the most bmliant and popular of living writers for boys. 

They are full and accurate in their statements : open- 
ing with the first glimmerings of history, the events 
are brought down to the present ; the subject matter is 
arranged in true historical proportions; the incidents are told 
with vivid and graceful power ; the pages are luminous with 
truth, with patriotism, and all the charming style of the 
most delightful romance. 

They contain no superfluous words, neither are they 
"written down" to the presumed capacity of learners. 
Important facts and apposite comments are furnished, and 
as much detail as is available for schools or for the general 
reader. In the hands of Mr. Ellis history becomes as fas- 
cinating as romance. The text is not statistical, but ample 
reference tables and voluminous indices are found in their 
proper places in each volume. In the case of important 
wars, the way in which they began and ended is clearly 
presented, and enough detail supplied to show the spirit in 
which they were carried on. 

Handsomely printed on fine super-calendered paper from 
large, clear type, and profusely illustrated in the highest 
style of art, with handsome frontispieces, portraits of the 
great makers of history, and superb illustrations of leading 
events and incidents, from rare historical paintings and en- 
gravings, they present the handsomest and most interesting 
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jil.TEMVS' ILLUSTRATED 

YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY 
OF THE UNITED STATES 

By Edward S. Ellis, A. M. 

It is appropriate that the initial work of this series should 
be that of our own country. From a few struggling colon- 
ies strung along the Atlantic seaboard, with a population of 
less than three millions, it has expanded in a little more 
than a century to an area that stretches from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, and from the frozen regions of the North to 
the Gulf of Mexico, with almost a hundred million inhabi- 
tants. 

Xo nation or country has so fascinating and instructive a 
history as that of the United States. Strange adventures 
and marvelous achievement crowd its pages ; and the 
attainments shown in the fields of education, of discovery, 
of invention, of literature, of art and science are wonderful 
and unprecedented. 

This volume enables every boy and girl to make them- 
selves familiar with the leading facts in our history from the 
discovery of America to the present time. It will make 
them, if possible, more patriotic, and will stimulate an 
interest in deeper historical study. 

The full text of the Constitution of the United States and 
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or ENGLAND ^ ^ ^ ^ 

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No history can be more absorbing and instructive to 
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aim of this volume is to enable them to easily acquire a 
knowledge of the leading facts ^-^ /^^'^^^''^-'S "i, ^^ 
stupendous British Empire, whose full history, teeming 
with mighty events and spanning twenty centuries, re- 
quires volumes for the telling. 

It is not intended that this shall take the place of .he 
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mark the sweep of the empire along the road of discovery 
conquest, progress, development, civilization, learning, art, 
literature, science and Christianity. Yet, it is a comprehen- 
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conquered by the Romans before the Christian Era to the 
proud position of the foremost Christian Power of the O d 
World, and its perusal will arouse an interest that can only 
be sat sfied by a deeper and more extended study of the 
Angl<;;Saxon face, the dominant factor in the future devel- 
ooment and progress of the world. 

■^^aluable reference tables, showing a list of the sovereigns 
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^LTEMUS' ILLUSTRATED 

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OF FRANCE j^ j^ j^ j^ 

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At present France appears to be a republic ; she 
has been an aristocracy, a monarchy, an absolute 
despotism, and a commune. She has been ruled by 
savages, and by men claiming to be civilized, yet 
who were less worthy to rule than savages. Her 
throne has been filled by monsters of villainy and 
by wise and good statesmen. She produced the 
greatest military genius the world ever saw ; her 
scholars, scientists, discoverers, philosophers, poets, 
dramatists, historians, novelists, essayists, sculptors 
and painters have never been surpassed. 

No nation has been more humiliated than France; 
none has been exalted to more dizzy heights of 
glory. Her dreams have turned into realities, 
and her realities have dissolved into visions. In 
blood and flame she has gone down to despair and 
then leaped to heights that have caused the world 
to wonder. 

France is a wonderful nation, and her history is 
instructive, for it includes every system of govern- 
ment that the ingenuity of man can devise. It is 
full of warnings, too, and of instructive lessons for 
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of amazing length and breadth. 
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savages who roamed the wilderness between the 
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thousand years to the German Empire of to-day and 
its population of more than fifty millions. 

The record of Germany, now among the foremost 
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toil, sacrifice and daring. 

The story is as instructive as impressive ; and, as 
in former volumes in this series, the author has 
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In tracing back the development of the present civilized 
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Romans. Still back of them and down their line, we reach 
the Greeks, whose history forms one of the most fascinating 
and instructive narratives in the annals of mankind. 

We know very little of their early history, yet, by digging 
deep into the ground we find remains of ancient strongholds 
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These men of Greece became exceedingly skilled in the 
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among the most wonderful ever produced by man. 

It is impossible not to catch the inspiration of the author 
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historic to modern times. 

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The story of Rome, the Imperial City ; Rome, the mis- 
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There are dim, misty beginnings, and then the teeming 
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The volume is not mere biography and the records of 
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